
Copyright N^_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Cradle Days of 
NewYork 



By HUGH MACATAMNEV 




231 




PURCHASE OF MANHATTAN ISLAND BY PETER MINUIT, 1626. 
(From the painting by Alfred Fredericks for the Title Guarantee and Trust Company.) 

Hudson-Fulton Celebration Edition 



50c. 



D K K W & I. E W I S , Publishers 

95 Cliff St.. New York 



50c. 



PROGRAMME 

OF THE 

HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 



The programme of events for the Hudson-Fulton celebration, which will 
begin on Saturday, September 25, and last until October 3, and on that 
day shift to the upper Hudson towns and cities, is as follows: 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. 

The American and foreign naval vessels will rendezvous in New York 
harbor, and will be one of ten squadrons. The first will consist of sea- 
going and coastwise merchant vessels; then will come steamboats ply- 
ing in inland waters of the United States, including ferryboats; steam 
yachts, commanded by W. Butler Duncan, Jr., will be next in line, fol- 
lowed by motor boats under the command of J. Adolph Mollenhauer. The 
fifth squadron will be made up of tugs and steam lighters, followed by 
the sixth, consisting of sailing craft. Police boats and the craft de- 
voted to the preservation of the public safety, such as wrecking, fire and 
hospital boats, will make up the seventh squadron, and then will come 
the escort squadron, including such Government craft as torpedo boats 
and submarines, naval militia vessels, steam launches, and cutters in the 
Government service, escorting the Half Moon and the Clermont, under the 
command of Commander R. P. Forshew of the Second Battalion of the 
Naval Militia. The patrol squadron, the ninth by number, is to be made up 
of vessels in the revenue service and other Government, State or private 
vessels authorized by the War Department to do patrol duty. The final 
squadron will be the scout squadron, and will consist of fast steamers and 
motor boats detailed to do dispatch boat duty. 

At 10.30 a. m. the escort squadron will assemble with the replicas of the 
Half Moon and Clermont off Constable Point, in the Kill von Kull, and will 
manoeuvre with them along the Staten Island and Bay Ridge shores. The 
formation of the various other squadrons will begin between 12.30 and 1 
o'clock, and at 1.15 the whole fleet will start up the bay to the Hudson 
River, the escort division, with the replicas of the Half Moon and Cler- 
mont in the center. 

The fleet will steam slowly up to Forty-second street, then pass to the 
west between the war vessels and the Jersey shore, the warship line ex- 
tending to 175th street — its northern end. Then it will recross the river 
and head downstream on the New York side to 110th street. There the 
official reception of the Half Moon and Clermont will be celebrated with 
appropriate ceremonies. 



ii HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION. 

The head of the parade will reach 110th street about 4 o'clock. In the 
evening the same parade will be repeated, starting at 7.30 o'clock, amid 
u brilliant display of fireworks. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27. 
There will be a general decoration of public and private buildings 
from New York to the head of the Hudson River. The day will begin with 
a reception to the official guests at the headquarters of the Department of 
the East, on Governor's Island. 



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. 

The special feature will be the historic parade in the City of New 
York, participated in by people of all nationalities. The procession will 
be composed of floats and moving tableaux representing the principal 
events in the history of the aboriginal, the Dutch, the English, the Revo- 
lutionary, and the American periods of our history. 

The parade will start at a time to be announced at 110th street and 
Central Park West, will proceed down Central Park West to Fifty-ninth 
street, thence through to Fifth avenue, and down to Twenty-third street. 
From Fifth avenue and Twenty-third street the parade will either proceed 
down to Washington Square, to disband at Fourth street, or else will turn 
up Madison avenue a few blocks, and then disband. 

In the evening will be held the ofl^cial literary exercises in the 
Metropolitan Opera House and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, at which 
men of national and interaational prominence will make addresses. 



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. 

This will be essen'^ially a historical day, designed to be partici- 
pated in by universities, colleges, schools, museums, and learned and patri- 
otic societies throughout the State. 

There will be commemorative exercises at Columbia University, New 
York University, the College of the City of New York, Cooper Union, St. 
John's University, Fordham, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, all 
the public schools and nearly all the private institutions of learning 
throughout the State. 

There will also be motorboat races and aquatic sports on the Hudson 
River. The crews of many of the warships will take part in these contests. 
Fifteen thousand dollars will be spent for prizes of various kinds. The pre- 
liminaries of the motorboat races will be held on Saturday, Monday and 
Tuesday, and the finals on Wednesday, at a point approximately off Ninety- 
sixth street. 

At the same time up-river there will be high power motor boat races at 
Yonkers, and sailing races for 30-footers and classes below at Newburg, in- 
cluding possibly the American and Dutch challengers in the International 
Sender Class races. 



HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION. iii 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30. 

The military parade. This parade will include fully 25,000 men of the 
United States Army and Navy, the National Guard, the Naval Militia vari- 
ous veteran organizations, and landing parties from the foreign wa;ships. 
It will follow the same route as the historical parade of Tuesday Only the 
military and naval organizations mentioned will march, and no civic oreani- 
zations will have place in the line. 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1. 

The naval parade up-river, with incidental ceremonies along the line 
The great fleet, organized into three squadrons, will start at the hours of 
8, 9 and 10 o'clock, or else 7, 8 and 9 o'clock, as may be thought best, to 
escort the Half Moon and the Clermont up river as far as Newburgh Bay 
That is as far as it will be practicable for some of the naval vessels to go 

At Newburg there will be elaborate festivities. The Half Moon and the 
Clermont will be turned over to an up-river squadron, which will take the 
replicas on to Albany. The historical parade will be repeated in Brooklyn 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2. 

A general carnival day for New York City. In all the cities along the 
Hudson carnival exercises will take place, participated in by the children 
On the Stony Point battlefield the Daughters of the Revolution will unveil 
their Memorial Arch. 

In the evening there will be one great carnival parade, with moving 
allegorical tableaux, participated in by the German societies. 

Every municipal building and thousands of private buildings every 
great bridge spanning the East River, every monument, and many of the 
great thoroughfares will be illuminated with tens of thousands of electric 
lights. There will be 14.000 of these on the Queensboro Bridge and nearly 
as many on ^each of the other great bridges. Along the Hudson River 
front there will be an illumination of both sides of the river from Spuyten 
Duyvil to Seventy-second street. 

On Riverside Drive there will be two enormous batteries of search- 
lights, one located at 110th street, with twelve searchlights aggregating 
1,700,000 candle power, and another of four searchlights, aggregating 
400,000 candle power, which will be turned upon Grant's Tomb. Meantime 
there will be special firework displays on floats along the river front in 
honor of the visiting fleets. 

At 9 o'clock the signal fires will be lighted all along the Hudson 
The points selected are Governor's Island, Fort Lee, Fort Washington 
Spuyten Duyvil, Alpina, Hasting's Point, Dunderburgh, Anthony's Nose' 
Sugar Loaf Hill, West Point, Constitution Island. Storm King. Bull Hill' 
and Crow's Nest. ' 

It has been arranged that President Taft shall give the signal for 
lighting all these fires. When the signal is given rockets, bombs, and an 



iv • IJUDSOK-fVI.TOX CEI.RBRATJOX. 

enormous display of fireworks will be set off at each of the points selected, 
and then the great fires will be lighted, which will burn for four hours, with 
a flame thirty feet high. 



SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3. 

Celebrations in the communities north of New York City. The up-river 
fleet will start the trip of the Half Moon and Clermont north from Newburg, 
while in New York City there will be a sacred concert in Carnegie Hall by 
the People's Choral Union. 



^ MONDAY, OCTOBER 4. 
Poughkeepsie will be the center of interest, while at Yonkers and in 
nearby towns there will be street, parades. 



TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3. 

The naval parade on the river up to Kingston. 



V^^EDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6. 

Naval parade at Catskill, where a statue of Rip Van Winkle will be 
unveiled. On the Lower Hudson there will be celebrations at Nyack, Pier- 
mont, Grand View and neighboring villages as far as Tuxedo. 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7. 
The fleet will reach Hudson, where a statute of the explorer will be 
dedicated, and further down the river local celebrations will be held at 
Ossining and Haverstraw and near-by towns. 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8. 

Flotilla will reach Albany, while local celebrations are held at Peeks- 
kill, participated in by the people of adjoining towns. 



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9. 

The naval parade will reach Troy, the end of its journey. On the 
Lower Hudson there will be local celebrations at Garrisons, Highlands, 
West Point and near-by villages, with which the Hudson and Fulton fes- 
tival will end. 




■■-_fe:=r-- -B 




HENRY HUDSON MEMORIAL. 

(To be erected on the hill on the north side of Spuyten Duyvil Creek and paid for by popular subscription. 

Site given by William C. Muschenheim.) 



CRAD LE DAYS 

O F 

EW YORK 

( 1609-1825) 



By HUGH MAGATAMNEY 



New York 
DREW & I.EWIS, Publishers 
190S» 



f- 



^ 



Copyright, 1909, by Hugh Macatamney. 



(All rights reserved.) 




9 47^29 
r.i * 

SEP 9 1909 






PREFACE 



"Cradle Days of New York" is, in its amended form, the series of 
articles which appeared in The New York Tribune under the title "Little 
Old New York." After its publication in The Tribune many requests 
came for it in book form, and the author has barkened to the appeals of 
those who wanted it in such form. 

It is a compilation of data regarding the little village of 1609, the 
town of 1725 and the city of 1825. The facts have been gathered from 
many sources — historical societies, city and state libraries, Trinitv 
Church records, descendants of some of New York's old families, and 
from manuscripts loaned to the author by officials of Holland and 
England. 

The origin of present day conditions, of present day laws, of present 
day events has been traced and is explained to the reader. Every effort 
has been made by the author to keep away from the beaten paths of the 
historians, which necessarily must be heavy at times, and to present in 
as light a way as possible the, to us, peculiar ways in which our fore- 
fathers laid the foundation of this glorious City of New York. 

The book is compiled with the years in sequence, so that it is a 
handy reference book as well as a continued story of the growth of the 
city. 

In 1825 the city had stretched east and west to its limits, and north 
to the present Eighth street, and had become a strong, lusty youngster. 
It had left its cradle, had forsaken the apron strings and its sturdy legs 
were carrying it farther north, when the author bade it good-by and 
good luck. Little New York had almost become a memory. 



CONTENTS 

Page 
PREFACE 5 

CHAPTER I— (1G09-1G84)— Court of Assizes; The First Mayor; Tlie First 
Tax; The First Night Watch; Beginning of Property Condemnation and 
Street Paving; Religious Fervor of the Huguenots 11 

CHAPTER II— (1GS4-1G94)— Introduction of the Negro; Negro Plots; Tobacco 
Cultivation; Religious Dissensions; Worship by Jews Not Allowed; "In- 
viters to Funerals"; Ducking Stool Set Up 15 

CHAPTER III— (1694-1700)— Old New York the Flour City; First Episcopal 
Place of Worship; First City Hall; First Hospital; Start of Shipbuilding 
Industry; First Lighting System; Law to "Hang Popish Priests" . . 19 

CHAPTER IV— (1700-1711)— Geologic History of New York; Beginning of the 
De Peyster Fortune; "The Great Sickness"; The First Schoolmaster; Pres- 
entation of King's Farm to Trinity; First Licensed Auctioneer ... 23 

CHAPTER V— (1711-1729)— First Poundkeeper and Scavenger; Heathcote 
Hall; Home for Paupers; First Public Clock; Ropewalk Established; First 
Presbyterian Church; Irish Tuber Introduced; First Tax Law; The "New 
York Gazette" 29 

CHAPTER VI— (1730-1734)— First Court of Common Pleas; First Fire De- 
partment; The "New York Weekly Journal"; First Criminal Libel Case; 
Stage Between Boston and New York 33 

CHAPTER VII— (1734-1745)— Quakers Granted Right to Vote; First Poor- 
house; Law Regarding Riding on Shafts of Cart; Gaming Houses De- 
nounced by Law; Founding of New York Society Library .... 37 

CHAPTER VIII— (1745-1753)— City Officials Watched the Drawing of Govern- 
ment Lotteries; First Reward for Firemen; Erection of First Tlieatre; 
Origin of Public Exchanges; Governor Osborne Succeeds Clinton and Kills 
Himself 41 

CHAPTER IX— (1753-1758)— Old Burial Places; Founding and Early Annals 
of King's College; Magnificent Home of a ^Merchant Prince; First Staten 
Island Ferry; St. Andrew's Society Established; The Debtors' Jail . . 45 

CHAPTER X—(1759-17G5)— Society for the Encouragement of Faithful Do- 
mestic Servants Organized; Development of Chatham Street; First Bap- 
tist Church; Law Regulating Price of Meat; Sandy Hook Lighthouse . 50 



ii COXTEXTS. 

Page 

CHAPTER XI— (1765-1768)— Old State Prison; First Colonial Congress; 
Stamp Duties; First Lutheran Church; The Brick Church; Liberty Pole 
Erected; Disfranchisement of the Province; Scotch Presbyterian Church 54 

CHAPTER XII— (1768-1770)— Captain Kidd— New York Hospital Founded; 
Fourth, or North, Church; Marine Society Incorporated; Statue of George 
III Ordered Erected; Statue of Pitt 58 

CHAPTER XIII— (1770-1776)— Landmarks of Old New York; Circular to the 
Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New I'ork; Battle of 
Golden Hill; First Record of a Boycott 62 

CHAPTER XIV— (1776-1780)— Richmond Hill; Tom Paine's "Common Sense"; 
Death of Tom Paine; Great Fire of 1776; First Written Constitution of 
New York Framed at Princeton; Intense Cold in 1779 .... 68 

CHAPTER XV— (1780-1784)— Chelsea Village: Its Origin; Clement C. Moore; 
Treaty of Peace Signed; Reception to General Washington; Black Sam's 
Tavern; Reception to Lafayette; Proposition to Establish Waterworks 73 

CHAPTER XVI— (1784-1785)— Trysting Place of New Y'ork's Belles and 
Beaux; Homes of Old New Yorkers; Fashionable Hotels in the Old Days; 
Formation of Political Parties; Tryon Row 78 

CHAPTER XVII— (1785-1788)— Fair Greenwich; Origin of Abingdon Square; 
Bank Street; Second Jewish Burying Ground; Stage Line Between Green- 
wich Village and Pine Street; Monument to General Montgomery . . S3 

CHAPTER XVIII— (1788-1790)— Broadway in the Beginning of the Nineteenth 
Century — Residence Streets; Business Streets; Country Seats; Brevoort 
Estate and Fight of Owner; Henry Spingler's Stubbornness ... 88 

CHAPTER XIX— (1790-1791)-Story of a Muf5ical Event in 1850; Salary of 
the Mayor in 1790; Final Location of Seat of Government; Plague of 
Yellow Fever 93 

CHAPTER XX— (1791-1794)— History of Education in New York; Work of 
Public School Society; Beginning of Board of Education; Revival of Public 
Improvements; Fresh Water Pond . 98 

CHAPTER XXI— (1794-1795)— Origin of Street Names; First Sidewalks Laid; 
Houses Numbered; "Battle Off San'dy Hook"; City Refuge of French 
Emigres; Christ Church Built; First Dispensary 103 

CHAPTER XXII — (1795) — First Newspaper; History of Newspapers Up to 
1845; First One-Cent Paper; Beginning of the Newsboy; Origin of News- 
paper Distribution; The Moon Hoax 110 

CHAPTER XXIII— (1795-1796)— Bowling Green; Origin of "Gotham"'; "The 
New Y'ork Gazetteer"; Cost of City Lighting; Beginning of Gas Com- 
panies; Burning of New Treaty 115 



CONTENTS. iii 

CHAPTER XXIV— (1796-1797)— Theatres and Theatricals in New York from 
1732; Introduction of Italian Opera; Old City's Opinion of the Derivation 
of tlie Word Drama; Theatre Receipts in 1827 119 

CHAPTER XXV— (1797)— Opinion of an English Actor in 1797 of New York; 
The Potter's Field; State Prison at Greenwich; First Superintenrent of 
Public Works; Treadmill 124 

CHAPTER XXVI— (Religions— Dutch Reformed)— History of the Dutch Re- 
formed Church; First Members Worshipped in Loft in Mill; Customs Pre- 
vailing in Three Places of Worship; First Trial of Steamboat . . . 129 

CHAPTER XXVII— (Religions— Protestant Episcopal)- Advent of Protestant 
Episcopal Church; Support of Church of England Made Compulsory; The 
Establishment of Trinity; Its Baptism of Fire; Building of St. George's, 
St. Paul's and St. John's Chapels 134 

CHAPTER XXVIII— (Religions— Lutheran)— The First Lutheran Church; 
•lustus Falckner First Lutheran Pastor to Be Ordained in America; Ac- 
count of His Ordination; Four Congregations and One Hundred Communi- 
cants His Initial Charge 139 

CHAPTER XXIX— (Religions— Presbyterian)— History of the Presbyterian 
Church in New York; "The Apostle of Presbyterianism in America," Rev. 
Francis Doughty; Arrest of Ministers by Order of Lord Cornbury . . 143 

CHAPTER XXX— (Religions— Baptist, Methodist, Jewish and Quaker)- The 
Baptist Church; Meetings in Private Dwellings; Sacrament Administered 
in Rigging Loft; The Methodist Church; The Moravians; The Quakers; 
Tlie Jews 147 

CHAPTER XXXI— (Religions— Roman Catholic)— Advent of the Sect in the 
City; Great Intolerance Shown to It; Opening of a Latin School; Liberty 
of Conscience Granted to All Except "Papists" 152 

CHAPTER XXXII— (1798)— Yellow Fever Scourge Causes Agitation for 
Drinking Water Supply; Aaron Burr's Scheme; The Tea Water Pump; 
Building of Croton Aqueduct, Central Park Reservoir and High Bridge . 158 

CHAPTER XXXIII— (1798)— The First Steamboat; Monopoly of Hudson 
Traffic Granted to Robert R. Livingston; His Craft a Failure; Fulton and 
the Clermont's First Trip to Albany; First Steam Ferryboats . . . 162 

CHAPTER XXXIV— (1798-1799)— History of Section from Ann Street to Pearl 
Street; ^\^le^e Leisler and Milborne Were Buried; The Place of Execution; 
Catimut's Hill; First Day of Thanksgiving; Death of Washington . . 166 

CHAPTER XXXV— (1800)— History of City Hall Park; A Few of the Occur- 
rences There; First Public Building Erected Within Its Limits; Building 
of the Piesent City Hall 171 



iv CONTENTS. 

Page 

CHAPTER XXXVI— (1800)— Lower Broadway: Its Position as a Residential 
Neighborhood; Places of Historic Interest; Some of Its Residents; 
Oyster Pasty Alley; Bowling Green Inclose'd; The City at the Century's 
Dawn 176 

CHAFIER XXXVII— (1800)— History of Wall Street; Speculative Instinct 
of Our Forefathers; Erection of First Presbyterian Church; Coffee House; 
The Bank of New York; Comparative Values ISO 

CHAPTER XXXVIII— (1800)— History of the "Heere Wegh" (Wall Street to 
City Hall Park); The Damen Plantation; The Van T'ienhoven Planta- 
tion; The Shoemaker's Pasture; The' King's Arms Tavern . . .185 

CHAPTER XXXIX— (1800)— Broadway from Aescy to Uuane Street; Mon- 
tagnie's Garden; Cox's Garden; Contoit Garden; the Rutgers Farm; Origin 
of Chambers Street; First Dry Goods Store; Exhibition of Sewing Ma- 
chine 100 

CHAPTER XI^( 1800)— East Side of Broadway Between Duane and Pearl 
Streets; Masonic Hall; The Morgan Murder; The De Peyster Dairy; 
The White Conduit House: Another Conduit Garden 195 

CHAPTER XLI—(1802-181G)— Academy of Fine Arts Founded; City Comp- 
troller Appointed; Period of Duelling; Yellow Fever Scourge; Death of 
Alexander Hamilton; Founding of New York Historical Society and 
Musical Society 201 

CHAPTER XLII— (1817-1825)— First Line of Packet Ships Established; Ar- 
rival of the Great Eastern; Body of General Montgomery Transferred; 
Reception to Lafayette; Organization of First Savings Bank . . . 208 

CHAPTER XLin- (The City's Musical Life from 1825 to 1872)— The Garcia 
Family; "The Woods"; Mrs. Seguin; Madame Borghese; Havana Opera 
Company; Miss Clotilda Barili; Madame Anna Bishop; Madame Bosio; 
Madame Anna Thillon; Madame Alboni; Adelina Patti; Clara Louise 
Kellogg 215 

CHAPTER XLIV— (History of Central Park)— Originally Shanties and Bone- 
Boiling Establishments; Land Cost $0,348,595.00; Site of State Arsenal; 
Used by Tweed for Political Power; Introduction of European Sparrows; 
Analysis of the Soil 222 

CHAPTER XLV — Rump Board of Aldermen; Passenger Transportation; In- 
troduction of Croton Water; First Local Stage Lines; First "L" Road; 
Advent of the Flat House; Beginning of Central Park . . . .227 



CHAPTER I. 



(1609-1684.) 



Court of Assizes, the First Mayor, the First Tax and the First Night 

Watch — Beginning of Property Condemnation and Street Paving 

— Religious Fervor of the Huguenots. 

Students of the history of New York City know that it derived its origin 
and commercial importance from tlie colonizing and trading spirit of the 
Hollanders, and the thirst for adventure which characterized other maritime 
nations of Europe soon after the discovery of this Western Continent. 

The early troubles and civil commotions of the colonies were occasioned 
by the conflicting claims of England, France and Holland, arising from 
real or pretended rights from prior discovery of territory. Many facts 
might be outlined regarding these interior collisions from 1609, the advent 
of Hudson, and the year which set whirling the competitive and ingenious 
brains of the adventurous settlers, but they are in the minds of most school- 
boys, and have no place in this compilation of events leading up to the pres- 
ent day. As one historian puts it, when, speaking of the first ground given 
to the Dutch by the Indians, a classical knowledge of Queen Dido was 
turned to profitable account by the Dutch, and the first American got drunk 
on Hudson's whiskey, slept, awoke and called for more. 

According to manuscript documents antedating 1800, which yield the 
most curious particulars of local history and statistical information, some 
apparently trivial and unimportant at first sight, but all valuable in tracing 
the history and progress of the city and its unexampled growth and pros- 
perity, the earliest authentic record of population is in 1656. Then several 
new streets were laid out, and the first map of the city was sent to Holland 
by Governor Stuyvesant, who arrived in 1G47, and was the last Governor 
under the Dutch dynasty. He held office for seventeen years, until the 
colony was taken in 1664 by Colonel Nichols, who arrived from England 
with four frigates and 300 soldiers, and afterward reported to the Duke of 
York, who had granted the patent for the expedition, that the town was 
composed of a few miserable houses, occupied by men who were extremely 
poor; but he foretold its greatness if certain immunities were granted. 

Colonel Nichols organized the first Court of Assizes, invested It with 
every power, collected into one code the ancient customs of the colony, 
added improvements, and made the laws of England supreme. Henceforth 

II 



12 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

no purchase of land from the Indians was valid without his license. He 
confiscated all the property of the West India Trading Company, which 
was established by Holland in 1620 to trade to the western coast of Africa 
and the eastern shores of America, with power to make treaties with the 
princes of the land, to build fortresses for the protection of its commerce 
and do everything for the preservation of good government. It was this 
company that settled a colony and called it New-Netherlands. Under its 
control frequent quarrels occurred as to boundary and trade, but the colo- 
nists managed to build the first street in the city — Pearl street — and to 
erect a fort at the junction of the North and East rivers, which contained 
houses and a church. The company failed in 1634. 

Governor Nichols, in 1664, altered the style and form of government 
in New York from Scout, Burgomaster and Schepen to Mayor, Alderman 
and Sheriff. The first Mayor of the incorporation, so called, was Thomas 
Willett, an Englishman. He had factories or Indian trading houses from 
Kennebeck, Me., to Delaware. The Sheriff was Allerd Anthony. 

Twelve hundred guilders ($1,000) was raised for the support of the 
ministry in New York, and permission was given to the Lutherans to send 
for and settle a minister of their persuasion in the city. He was Jacobus 
Fabriceius, who arrived in 1669. John Shute was licensed as the only 
English schoolmaster in Albany, to teach the Dutch the English language. 
Colonel Francis Lovelace, in May, 1667, succeeded Colonel Nichols, who re- 
turned to England. During this year a wagon road was constructed from 
New York to Harlem, and the next year, for the sake of promoting a good 
breed of horses, the Governor instituted races at Hempstead, Long Islani, 
and subscriptions were taken from all willing to run for a crown in silver 
or a bushel of good wheat. 

The government of 1671 had its troubles about salaries withheld, for 
we read that Samuel Driscus, the Dutch minister, applied to the Governor 
and council to have two years' arrears of salary paid; but as he had been 
sick one year they refused, and paid him only £100, though they recom- 
mended that the elders and deacons help him further. Such is the rela- 
tion of Church to State. In 1672 the fi"rst Friend preached in New York, 
and the following year the post rider began his trips to and from Boston,' 
once in three weeks. In July of the same year the Dutch retook the cityi 
but the next year it was restored to the English. The commander of the fort 
at the time of the surrender to the Dutch was tried for treachery and had 
his sword broken over his head, just for a little thing like surrendering to 
the enemy without firing a shot. 

In 1674 Nicholas de Meyer, Mayor, established the first valuation of 
citizens' holdings and laid the first tax, and from then to this day "kickers" 
and evaders have flourished. The name of Thomas Lewis, an Irishman, is 
found in the records for this year. He was one of four who mingled with 
the Dutch in New-Amsterdam, and was seventeenth in a list of inhabitants 
recorded in the order of their wealth. He was worth 6,000 florins, and had 
real estate. 

In 1675, with Edmund Andros Governor and William Duvall Mayor, a 
Court of Sessions was established; no liquors were to be sold to the Indians 
(for divers reasons), English weights and measures were established, rates 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 13 

were levied for the support of the ministry, and "all persons on Long Island 
of an estate worth from £20 to ilOO may keep one breeding mare and no 
more; and so for every £100 one, but as many working geldings as wanted." 
Magistrates were told to do justice to Indians as well as Christians! 

The colonists builded better than they knew in the following: "Janu- 
ary 11. — The watch set at 8 o'clock every evening, after ringing of the bell, 
and the city gates locked at 9, and opened again at daylight. No cursing 
or swearing permitted. Every citizen to have a musket and powder and 
ball constantly in readiness. No person allowed to sell or trade unless free 
burgesses of the city for one year, and they not to depart without giving 
six months' notice thereof; or, unless such person or persons so departing 
shall during that time keep fire and candle, pay scot and lot. And every 
merchant made free shall pay six beavers, and all handicrafts traders two 
beavers for being made freemen. All persons that keep public houses shall 
sell beers as well as wyne and other liquors and keep lodging for strangers." 

What a chance for the Governor and Mayor in 1675 in the following 
proposal: "That there be six houses appointed to sell all sorts of wyne and 
brandy and rum, with lodging, and eight houses to sell beers and syder, 
mum and rum, and to provide for strangers, to sell brandy, rum, strong 
waters and tobacco," and the following prices of wines, etc., were estab- 
lished: 

French wines Is. 3d. per English quart. 

Fayal wines and St. Georges Is. 6d. per English quart. 

Madeira wines Is. lOd. per English quart. 

Canary and Malaga 2s Od. per English quart. 

Brandy 6d. per English gill. 

Rum 3d. per English gill. 

Cider 4d. per English quart. 

Mum 6d. per English quart. 

Lodging at the wine houses was fourpence a night, and at the beer 
houses threepence a night. 

From the following regulation passed by the Council in 1675 we trace 
the present law of property condemnation for the purpose of improving the 
city: "Ordered, that the land in this city convenient to build on, if the 
parties who own the same do not speedily build thereon, their land may be 
valued and sold to those who are willing to build." Streets were to be 
cleaned every Saturday, or oftener, and cartmen forfeited their licenses if 
the dirt was not carried away. A public slaughter-house was ordered built 
outside the gate of the city. 

The first auctioneer in the city was Adolphe Peterson, who was ordered 
to sell four lots, containing 25 feet each in front, English measure, at a 
vendue or outcry. 

In 1676 the first street paving was done. The Heeren Gracht, or Broad 
street, was filled up and levelled. There were no asphalt companies then. 
With an eye to protection of home industries, the Governor, in consequence 
of a representation that wheat was lower in New York than in the neigh- 
boring colonies, fixed its price at 5 shillings a bushel for winter yield and 
4s. 6d. for summer. 



14 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

The Council ordered "that it is not lawful to sell liquor to Indians, and 
if they are found drunk in the street, without knowing at what house they 
obtained the drink, the whole street is liable to a fine." "Tanners and cur- 
riers to be selected by the Aldermen and approved, and no others allowed. 
No butchers allowed to be curriers or tanners or shoemakers, and vice 
versa." 

In 1677 Stephauus Van Courtlandt became Mayor, and the first tax 
rate for defraying and discharging city debts, incurred for building docks, 
bridges, etc., was levied on 384 houses and 40 vacant lots, and at the same 
meeting the Council queried: "Whether attorneys are thought useful to 
plead in courts or not?" Answer: "It is thought not." Whereupon, 
resolved and ordered, "that pleading attorneys be no longer allowed to 
practice in the government, excepting in the depending cases." This was 
dated May 19. 

Here is something interesting to the people of New Rochelle: When 
the Huguenots first settled there the only place of worship they had was 
in New York City. They had taken land on terms which required the 
utmost exertions of men, women and children to clear. They worked hard 
till Saturday night, spent the night in trudging down on foot to the city, 
attended worship twice the next day and walked home the same night, to 
be ready for work on Monday morning. They wrote to France of the great 
privileges they enjoyed. There was no Easter parade then, no fine musical 
attraction — just the worship of God. 

Thomas Delaval was Mayor in 1678 and Francis Rombolt in 1679. 
Forty-eight shillings was received from sixteen persons who were licensed 
to sell wines. A negro was valued this year at £42 10s. 

William Beekman was deputy Mayor until 1681, when the Duke of 
York's charter was granted, and Governor Dongan arrived in 1682. Through 
him a charter was granted which has continued to be the basis of New 
York's rights and privileges. His town residence was on Broadway, the 
ground extending from Maiden Lane to Ann street. He also had an estate 
at Castleton, Staten Island. Mr. Stenwick was made Mayor, and the follow- 
ing year the first House of Representatives convened. The first Recorder, 
James Graham, v/as appointed at the request of the corporation, and took 
his place on the bench on the right hand of the Mayor. The style was al- 
tered to Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen. 

On what slender threads hung the hopes and fears of our ancestors in 
1683! On March 7 they noted a serious rival in trade on the opposite 
shores of the Hudson, and the Mayor of the city petitioned the Government 
and Crown to have East Jersey (which heretofore had been claimed as 
attached to the colony of New York, but had been separated) "reannexed 
to this province, as trade and revenue had suffered by the dismemberment, 
and fears were entertained in consequence that New York would be sup- 
planted by the diversion of trade." At this time New York had the ex- 
clusive privilege, by law, of bolting and packing flour and meal, and this 
was the sole support of at least two-thirds of its citizens, and was com- 
plained of by the country people as a grievance. In 1684 New street and 
Beaver street were ordered to be paved, and the first watch was appointed, 
consisting of eight persons, at 12 pence a night. 



CHAPTER II. 



(1684-1694.) 



Introduction of the NegTO-Negro Plots-Tobacco Cultivation-Religious 

Dissensions— Worship by Jews Not Allowed— Inviters to 

Funerals" — Ducking Stool Set Up. 

In the chronological history of New York mention is made of the valu- 
ation put on a negro in 1679. The old manuscripts in the P^^^^^);;.^;^^^^^^^^^ 
New York Historical Society show that the negro was introdu ed foity years 
prior to 1679 by the Privileged Trading Company of Amsterdam. In a 
re od of a lease in 1638. in the office of the secretary of the colony, of a 
certain tract of land near Fort Amsterdam, negroes are mentioned. The 
agreement is made in the names of "The Privileged Trading Company 
and the 'Honourable, wise and prudent Sir William Kieft, Director Gen- 
eral of New Netherlands.- This tract of land was -^^ f^ ^^^^-^^^^f^'bv 
tobacco as was a part of Pawles Hook, the whole of which was sold by 
Wliam Kieltto Abram Isaac Planck for £75. and a plantation to Thomas 
Mall "with the negroes thereon." 

ThT blacks lived a peaceable life with the Dutch and English unil 
1712 when an insurrection occurred among them, and they set fire to the 
city: kniing several of the inhabitants. Nineteen of the negroes were exe- 

'""''"^The celebrated negro plot of 1741, a full history of which is given 
un e'thirdat; occuri'ed when there were about -elve the an -hab- 
itants in the city, one-sixth of whom were negro slaves. Of this plot a book, 

'"'"•tftei^h! lap::'of nearly a century, we look back with astonishment 
on the panic ocas^oned by the negro plot. To Judge from tradition and the 
Journal of the proceedings against the conspirators, no doubt can be had o 
h actual existence of a plot. The very mode adopted to ^^^oj -bettors 
by mutual criminations and confessions tended m the Progress of tt 
to inculpate every negro slave in the city. As it was ^^P^ ^^^^^^^;^^;;^,;J^ 
equally guilty, the ringleaders only were executed, and those who plead 
guilty and thr;w themselves on the mercy of the court were transported. 

Suspic on of a plot among the negroes was first occasioned by frequent 
alarms of files and robberies. The most famous robbery occurred at the 
housTof a Mr. Hogg, in Broad street, where linen and -^^^ --' ^^^^"^^ 
Spanish to the value of £60. were taken. On Wednesday, March 18, 1740. a 
fi?e broke olt in "his majesty's house, at Fort George. The "tizens asse^ 
bed promptly and assisted in saving the records and papers - the office of 
the Secretary of State." The Governor's house and the veneiable Dutch 
churfh erecTed n 1640. were destroyed. Other fires occurring afterward, a 
pan cfo lowed an.ong the colonists. Many negroes were arrested and roni 
the ev dence obtained it appeared that the city was destined to be buined 



15 



i6 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

completely and the inhabitants massacred. Fifty-five of those arrested were 
convicted, and seventy-eight confessed. Thirteen vv^ere burned at the stake 
at a place then out of town, near the present intersection of Pearl street 
and Park Row; twenty were hanged, seventy were transported and fifty 
were discharged. 

In 1684 religious dissensions began to agitate the people of the Colony. 
Governor Dongan and some of the principal officers were Catholics, and had 
been appointed by the reigning Stuart family in England. It was feared, 
therefore, that the Protestant religion was in danger. To further increase 
the fear, a Latin school was opened under the management of a learned 
Jesuit. 

The colonists were not tolerant of the religion of others, however, for 
the Jews, having petitioned the Governor for liberty to exercise their re- 
ligion, and their petition being recommended by him to the Mayor and all 
Aldermen, and read in the Common Council, were told "that noe publique 
worship is tolerated, by act' of Assembly, but to those that professe faith in 
Christ, and therefore the Jews worship not to be allowed." While bigotry 
is less rampant outwardly to-day, there are many visible signs of the objec- 
tions made by some as to the manner in which others worship. About this 
time the honest Quakers were not tolerated in Boston. 

The first House of Representatives was abolished by James II in 1686, 
during which year he forbade the use of printing presses. In 1687 the news 
of the revolution in England and the accession of William and Mary to the 
throne reached the colonies. On the arrival of the news a militia captain, 
Leisler, seized the fort, where he acted as Governor, and convened the As- 
sembly. Two years after, on the arrival of Governor Slaughter, Leisler and 
his secretary, Malborne, were tried and convicted of high treason in not 
promptly giving up the fort. They were executed, and the proceedings in 
Leisler's trial were printed in Boston, as there was no printing press in 
New York. 

May 1, 1690, witnesses the first meeting of Commissioners (called a 
Congress) from the several colonies, preparatory to the establishing of pro- 
vincial laws, which was done in 1691, when the Duke of York's laws ceased 
and the first General Assembly convened in New York, composed of seven- 
teen members, selected as follows: City and County of New York, 4; Ulster 
and Dutchess, 2; Westchester, 1; Richmond, 2; Albany, 2; Suffolk, 2; Kings, 
2, and Queens, 2. 

In this year an important office was established by the council, that of 
"inviters to funerals." Richard Chapman and Cornadus Vandor Beeck were 
the successful candidates for the position, and their profits were to be equal. 
Amsterdam was the sponsor for this office and its duties. At a funeral the 
inviter was dressed in black, with a mourning crape on his hat reaching to 
the ground, and carried a scroll in his hand containing a list of the persons 
invited. A similar office is performed to-day by the undertaker's assistant, 
which doubtless is a survival of the old custom. Hogs were not "suffered to 
goe or range in any of the streets or lands, within the fire wards, under 
the penalty of the forfeiture of all such swine," etc., and "poysonous and 
stinking weeds within this city, before every one's door, to be forthwith 
pluckt up, upon the forfeiture of three shillings for the neglect thereof." 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 17 

"The poor ye have always with ye." "Ordered that Top-Knot Betty 
and another person and her children be provided for as objects of charity, 
and four shillings a week allowed." This was in 1691, and is so in 1909. 
We find that frequent grants of land were made by the corporation this 
year for trifling considerations. How true to history 218 years later! One 
wonders at the following, revealed by the old manuscript records of the 
council: "That the treasurer let Scarrbouch have a new suit, and assist him 
in what's wanting." 

In 1691 the public authorities sold all the land fronting the water, from 
Wall street to Maiden Lane, for 25 shillings a foot, and from there to Cliff 
street for 18 shillings a foot. From Cliff street to Beekman street it was 
sold for 15 shillings a foot. Water lots were sold at one shilling a foot. On 
December 8 of this year a piece of ground was granted for the Dutch church 
in Exchange Place, between Broad and William streets, "175 feet on the 
north and 180 feet on the south, for 180 current pieces of eight, at six shill- 
ings a piece, to be paid upon sealing the patents." The church first built on 
this spot was erected in 1693. The lot was not to be appropriated to any 
other use or assigned to any other person. 

About this time money was noticeably scarce, as the Recorder, Mr. 
Graham, was ordered to be paid half of £3 2 10s., which was the amount 
of the city's indebtedness to him, and the other half as soon as the fire money 
was received, "reserving in hand what may be sufiicient to supply the poor." 

Benjamin Fletcher, the new Governor, arrived from England this year, 
to succeed Governor Slaughter, and at a meeting of the Common Council it 
was agreed "that there be a treat made to welcome him to this city, to the 
value of i20, Alderman William Merritt to provide the same accordingly." 

Surveyors were appointed in 1691 to lay out streets and lots, for each 
of which they were to receive six shillings. Of their work a chronicler of 
the history of New York says: 

"The moderate expectations of the founders of the city as to its future 
extent and influence, together with the European notions imbibed by them 
as to the compactness and narrowness of streets, as in the Continental cities, 
caused that closeness and irregularity in the ancient form and aspect of the 
city which has devolved on their posterity a full measure of vexation and ex- 
pense in remedying the mistakes of their ancestors." 

As early as 1614 the first street mentioned is Pearl street, which was 
near the south walls of Fort Amsterdam and under command of its guns. It 
was so located to protect its inhabitants from the savages. Other streets 
were soon after formed in the vicinity, with a similar precaution in view. 
In 1653 the great wall was erocted across the island, and stood until 1699, 
when the increase of population and the scarcity of building room within 
it forced its demolition. 

This wall was of earth and palisadoes, with two gates (or poorts), the 
so-called land gate in Broadway, corner of Wall street, and the water gate 
in Wall street, corner of Pearl street, then close to the water. Outside of the 
wall were six bouses and one windmill on the highest land, and inside of it 
were 114 houses. 

Some of the streets assumed the winding shape of the eastern shore of 
the island. Pearl street began at the Battery and fronted on the water, and 



i8 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

other streets paralleled it. The cross streets were laid out where the least 
obstruction of hill or valley presented itself. There were no steam shovels 
then, and the natives could not cut down and level the entire face of the 
island, as the builders of a later generation have done. Objection was made, 
indeed, by the directors of the West India Trading Company, when in 1656 
the first plan of the city was sent to Holland, that the width of the streets 
was unnecessary and that too much space was allotted to gardens and open 
grounds. 

The colonists were preparing for family quarrels in 1691, as it was or- 
dered "that there be a ducking stool built forthwith upon the wharfe before 
the towne-house" (Coenties Slip, between Pearl and Water streets). 

Abram de Peyster became Mayor in 1692, and he recommended that the 
city make one wharf fronting King street (now Pine street), thirty feet 
wide, and two other wharfs, twelve feet wide, one on each side of Maiden 
Slip (?), running to high-water mark. It appears that the tide entered up 
the street as far as William street. "Spuyten Devil" Creek bridge was built 
in this year. 

July 8, 1693 — "Ordered that the Mayor doe provide a coat of the city 
livery, with a badge of the city arms, shoes and stockings for the bellman, 
and charge it to the account of the city." Also, "ordered that the Recorder 
doe draw up an address to congratulate his excellency on his safe return 
from Albany." An historian of old New York in 1829, commenting upon 
this incident, calls attention with evident pride to the fact that methods 
of transportation had greatly improved in the interval, the trip from Al- 
bany requiring but twelve (12) hours, instead of four days as formerly. 
Further, it was ordered "that the Mayor doe provide a cup of gold to the 
value of one hundred pounds, to be presented unto his excellency on behalf 
of this city, as a token of their gratitude." The Mayor bought of Peter 
Jacob Marius twenty ounces of gold for the cup. at a cost of il06, for which 
he and others gave their bonds, and desired a fund might be raised to pay 
the same, and it was ordered that the revenue of the ferry between the city 
and Brooklyn, "which doth annually arise, be not converted unto any other 
use whatsoever until the said one hundred and six pounds be paid as above." 

John Arsoon, a farmer and the lessee of the ferry mentioned, had com- 
plained of his inability to pay the rent (il47) of the ferry, and had it re- 
duced to £140 this year, and in the same old document which notes this 
startling information is this remark: "Thus nearly a whole year's income 
from this source was absorbed in this expensive golden cup — the first of the 
kind ever presented by the corporation." 

In 1694 the colonists had "a chiel amang them takin' notes" in the per- 
son of William Bradford, printer. Further on a full history will be given of 
Bradford and his work. "Kid the pirate committed great depredations on 
the coast about this time." 

Lots of ground in Wall street in this year were ordered sold at 30 shil- 
lings a foot, and lots nearer the water at 24 shillings a foot. The market 
house in Broadway was let to Henry Crosby for a farm for £1 a year. 

James Graham, the Recorder, was granted in perpetuity a lot in Queen 
street (Pearl street), "thirty feet in breadth in front and forty-four feet in 
the rear." 



CHAPTER III. 



(1694-1700.) 



Old New York the Flour City — First Episcopal Place of Worship — First 

City Kail — First Hospital — Start of Siiipbuilding Industry — 

First Lighting System — Law to "Hang Popish Priests." 

The name Flour City was given to old New York primarily, as she 
produced after 1683 a grade that had preference in all foreign markets. 
It engaged the services of two-thirds of her population in bolting and 
packing, and from it she derived a large revenue. Indeed, so steady was 
the increase in revenue and population from the furtherance of this in- 
dustry that in 1697, about eighty years after the beginning of the settle- 
ment, there were 4,302 inhabitants, and in 1699 there were 6,000. The 
framers of the law of 1683, by which this monopoly was given to the colony, 
compelled a rigid system of inspection of all flour made for export, and 
because of this it maintained its supremacy over the flour of the Old World 
and enriched its producers. v 

** m a petition to the Legislature in 1695, when an attempt was made to 
repeal the law, the Corporation of New York stated that when the bolting 
of flour began, in 1678, there were only 384 houses, as against 983 in 1695; 
that the revenue for the three years after 1678 was £2,000, and in 1687 it 
had increased to £5,000; that in 1678 there were 3 ships, 7 boats and 8 
sloops engaged in the trafl^ic, as against 60 ships, 4 boats and 25 sloops 
in 1694. 

The law, however, had become odious and oppressive to the country 
people, and their growing influence with the Governor and the Legislature 
caused its repeal in 1699, but not without a long and strenuous resistance 
from the city authorities, who were loath to have such a lucrative monopoly 
taken from them. 

In 1696 Trinity Church was built, the Rev. Mr. Vesey holding the first 
service in it on February 6, 1697. It was originally a small edifice, but was 
enlarged in 1735 and 1737. 

The first place of worship in the old city used by the Episcopalians was 
the small church built by the Dutch in 1640 inside Fort Amsterdam. Its 
service was in accordance with that of the Church of Holland and prevailed 
until 1664, when the fort and everything within its wall was taken pos- 
session of by the British troops. It was destroyed by fire on March 18, 1741, 
as the result of the negro uprising. 

During the fire which destroyed the southwest part of the city on 
September 21, 1776, the venerable edifice of Trinity met its fate and lay 

19 



20 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

in ruins during the war and for several years after. The present structure 
was rebuilt in 1788 and consecrated in 1791 by Bishop Provost. It is not 
as long as the old church, but is the same width, with a steeple twenty feet 
higher. The ground was gratuitously ceded to the vestry by the cor- 
poration of the city in 1702, on condition that it should always be neatly 
fenced in, and burials in it granted to the citizens forever for the fee of 
3s. 6d. for grown persons and Is. 6d. for all under twelve years of age. 

On June 26, 1696, a city hall was ordered built on the corner of Nassau 
and Wall streets, to cost £3,000. It was a modest, plain, substantial edifice, 
sufficient for those days of primitive simplicity, and continued, with occa- 
sional repairs and alterations, until after the War of the Revolution. Prior 
to the assembling of the Congress of the United States in this city in 1787 
and 1789 the building was altered and enlarged for its accommodation by 
the corporation, and remained so until demolished in 1811. It had a spa- 
cious portico projecting into Wall street several feet and resting on arches, 
with arcades underneath, extending around into Nassau street. From the 
portico of the second story, facing Broad street, General Washington was 
inaugurated first President of the United States. 

That the readers of this chronology of old New York may know the 
inception of the City Hall it will be necessary to go back to 164 2, when the 
town was yet in its infancy. In that year, that the citizens might have a 
building in which to assemble, a "Stadt-Huys," or State House, was built 
on the corner of Pearl street and Coenties alley, fronting the slip, by the 
West India Trading Company, and called their tavern. In it strangers 
who could not be conveniently received under the hospitable roof of the 
Governor were entertained, and the most important affairs of the city and 
colony were transacted. It sheltered the first school in 1652, and the first 
court of admiralty, organized by Governor Nichols in 1665. Courts were 
held and transfers of sovereignty were made in it in 1664 and 1674. Here 
also was the first jail of the city. In front of the building the militia 
paraded, and the stocks, whipping post and ducking stools were there. In 
1699 it was in such a decayed and dangerous state that at a public sale 
John Rodman, a merchant, bought it for i920. 

The second City Hall was erected in 1700 at the north end of Broad 
street, and was succeeded by the present building, which few know is of 
native white marble, from Stockbridge, Mass. Its foundation stone was 
laid on September 26, 1803, and it was finished in 1812 at a cost, exclusive 
of the furniture^ of half a million dollars. 

Soil was valuable, apparently, in 1696, for Captain Teunis De Kay 
petitioned that "a carte way be made leading out of the Broad street to the 
street that runs by the Pye-woman's (now Nassau street), leading to the 
commons of the city (now the park) ; and that he will undertake to doo the 
same provided he may have the soyle." Complaints of a great scarcity of 
bread existed in this year. 

In 1697 Church street was laid out, and a city watch of four sober men 
was ordered by the Council. 

The simple and cheap method of first lighting the city is given under 
date of November 23, 1697, in a resolution: "This board, taking into con- 
sideration the great inconveniency that attend this city, being a trading 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 21 

place, for want of having lights in the 'dark time of the moon' in the 
winter season; it is therefore ordered that all and every of the house- 
keepers within this city shall put out lights in their windows fronting the 
respective streets of the said city, according to such manner and rule as 
shall be directed by the Mayor, two Aldermen and two assistants, under 
the penalty of ninepence for each night of default." And on December 2 it 
was "ordered that every seventh house do hang out a pole with a lantern 
and candle; and the said seven houses to pay equal portions of the expense." 

The Earl of Belamont succeeded Governor Fletcher. He received his 
commission in June, 1697, but did not arrive until April, 1698, when four 
barrels of powder were ordered purchased to salute him. 

A peculiar ceremony was instituted in this year. A pew was built in 
Trinity Church for the use of the Mayor, Aldermen and their successors, 
with the understanding that the Mayor-elect, accompanied by others in 
authority, should proceed in grand procession from the City Hall to the 
church, where divine service would be performed and a sermon preached 
by the rector, after which the party would proceed to Fort William Henry 
and wait on the Governor, and the Mayor on his return would be sworn in 
at the City Hall. This ceremony was regularly continued until the Revo- 
lution. 

Who would not be Enoch Hill, the first Mayor's marshal? On No- 
vember 9, 1698, Mayor De Peyster appointed him "marshall and messenger 
to the Common Council; and hitherto having found him very diligent in his 
duty, desires that for his encouragement he be allowed a coat, breeches, hat, 
shoes and stockings, and a cloak of the city livery, and a Boodle's staff, at 
the city charge." It was ordered that the Mayor purchase the same at the 
city charge; that "the livery be blew, with an orange list." 

Hawkers or pedlers of to-day should know that the beginning of their 
troubles was August 9, 1699. A penalty of twenty shillings was placed on 
them then each time they peddled their goods around the streets. The law, 
however, spurred them on to petition for the establishing of a market at 
Coenties Slip (then called Countess's Key), to be built at their own expense, 
which was granted by the Council. 

The movement for the establishing of the first hospital in the city took 
place on September 6 of this year in the following order to the Mayor: 
"Ordered that the Mayor agree with some person for the keeping of an 
hospital for the maintenance of the poor of this city, upon the most easy 
terms that may be; and also that he hire a house suitable for that occasion." 
And the inhabitants of Haarlaem were permitted to erect one mill, and no 
more, "provided they do not hinder the passage of sloops or boats round 
Manhattan Island!" 

Here is the basis of paternalism by the old city: "William Sharpas, 
town clerk, had a grant of land from high to low water mark of one hundred 
feet for his good and faithful services for seven years past, and his encourag- 
ment to continue so for the future." 

Many people will wonder whether Clement Ellsworth was the pioneer 
of that great industry, shipbuilding, which for years gave employment to 
thousands of New Yorkers. The only record of the establishment of a yard 
for the carrying on of this work, however, is that of October 16, 1699. It 



22 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

fronted the East River and undoubtedly made that section of the city 
reputed throughout the country as the shipbuilding centre. 

Isaac D. Dromer was Mayor in 1700 and witnessed the passing by the 
Legislature of a law to "hang every popish priest who entered the colony to 
entice the Indians from their allegiance." An historian of 1810 gives the 
cause for the existence of this law in the following extract taken from the 
"History of the Negro Plot": 

"Our Dutch forefathers, glowing with all the zeal of the early re- 
formers, emigrated to this country shortly after the emancipation of the 
United Netherlands from the Spanish yoke, and fostered all the rancor of 
their race against Papists and Spaniards. It was the policy of the English 
Government to cherish this animosity. The act of our Provincial Assembly 
against Jesuits and Priests, which continued in full force until our inde- 
pendence, was owing not only to those prejudices, but to the exposed 
situation of the colony, the northern frontier of which was bounded by 
Canada, at that time in possession of France, the natural and ever daring 
enemy of England. The intolerant spirit of this act shows the horror and 
detestation in which the Roman Catholics were held, and will account for 
the scarcity, before the Revolution, in this city and colony of those who 
professed this faith. 

"In estimating this singular event in our colonial history, the circum- 
stances of the times should be duly considered before we condemn the 
bigotry and cruelty of our predecessors. The advantage of a liberal, indeed 
of the plainest, education was the happy lot of very few; ignorance and 
illiberal prejudices universally prevailed, and their more favored and en- 
lightened posterity will therefore draw a veil of filial affection over the 
involuntary errors of their forefathers and endeavor to transmit a brighter 
example to their successors." 

The colonists were not lacking in uniformity of thought or fealty to 
ideals, as the following bespeaks: "Ordered that the Mayor provide firewood 
for bonfires on the fourth and fifth days of this instant month of November, 
being the birthday of our sovereign lord, King William, and gunpowder 
treason; and that the Mayor pay to the Rev. William Vesey the sum of five 
pounds for preaching a sermon before this court on the 14th of October last." 




CHAPTER IV. 



(1700-1711.) 



Geologic History of New York— Beginning of the De Peyster Fortune 

—''The Great Sickness"— The First Schoolmaster— Presentation 

of King's Farm to Trinity — First Licensed Auctioneer. 

An outline of the geologic history of New York two hundred years ago 
may be of interest to the student of this science, as it makes a strong appeal 
to the imagination because of the vastness of time over which it extends. 

At some indefinite and distant age the present New York harbor was a 
mere expansion in the course of the Hudson River, which found its exit 
into the Atlantic Ocean some hundred miles seaward from where it de- 
bouches to-day. Manhattan Island presented then a far higher wall on the 
east side of the river and the Palisades a loftier escarj)ment on the west. 
The Hudson received the water discharged by the Housatonic, which en- 
circled the raised promontory of Governor's Island and mingled its tides 
with those of the Hudson along the shores of Ellis and Bedlow's Islands, 
then united to the mainland. Further south, at the opening of the present 
channel of the Kill van Kull, the Passaic, swollen by the waters of the 
Hackensack, united its floods with the two rivers, and the combined 
volume of water swept past Staten Island through the Narrows outward to 
the edge of the continent, where to-day eighty miles from the shore the 
floor of the coast plain sinks steeply to the abysmal depths of the ocean. 

As was mentioned before, the marble of which the present City Hall is 
built came from Stockbridge. Mass., while twelve miles from New York, near 
the mouth of Kingsbridge Creek, according to authoritative information, a 
range of this stone extended, with partial interruptions, as far as Ver- 
planck's Point. The inhabitants were not aware of the riches within their 
reach. Writing of this in 1815 the authority spoken of says: "This marble 
forms the most valuable building stone, and as it lies convenient to the 
river, and can be obtained of any size and form, it is a matter of surprise 
that it has not long ago superseded the unsightly red sandstone we are so 
fond of using. It only requires to be a little more used and it will become 
fashionable. Habits of long standing are difficult to eradicate, but it will 
not be long before the good sense of our fellow-citizens will discard the 
brick and sandstone and build all their houses of this material." 

In surveys made of the island early in 1700 it was declared to be essen- 
tially primitive. No transition or secondary rocks could be found in it. 
It was of one formation, granite, in some places overlaid by other rocks. At 

23 



24 . CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

the southern extremity from the Battery, reaching along the East River as 
far as Coenties Slip, and on the Hudson as far as Thames street, it is said 
there was a range of sharp and rugged rocks of schistose mica. Great quan- 
tities of garnets were gathered there, and further up the Hudson different 
varieties of minerals were to be found, such as black and brown tourmaline, 
beryl and actinolite. Near Harlem true granite and schistose mica existed. 
One geologist says that a compact, close grained black magnesian stone, 
with radiated spots of white asbestos, was found on the shore of the Hudson 
five miles from the city, springing from the granite rocks which surrounded 
it and not connected with anything of a similar nature. Porcelain clay has 
been found on the island in small quantities. 

L. P. Gratacap says: "The rock floor on wl\ich our city is built ex- 
isted in the earliest geologic age. Spurs from the archaean mountain range 
on the Atlantic border reached southward in Westchester county and in 
western Connecticut, and one of these formed tlie nucleal member of the 
geology of Manhattan, a peninsulated tract built outward by additions of 
sediments. This tract, elevated by a superficial contraction of the earth's 
crust, became modified by metamorphism, invaded by dike rocks and miner- 
alized by chemical readjustment of its elements. Except in so far as acted 
upon by atmospheric agencies and by the glaciers of the ice age, it has, 
however, undergone no geologic modification during the long periods of 
time since the close of the lower Silurian." 

We read that in 1700 the corporation sold two hundred acres of land 
in the vicinity of the city for £ 1 an acre, and that his majesty's Receiver 
General, J. De Peyster, farmed to old New York the whole revenue and 
excise of King's county, on Jjong Island, for one year for the sum of £40. 
The income from the two hundred acres in the vicinity of the city has no 
doubt in the last two hundred years been the source of enjoyment or the 
cause of misery; the foundation of a line of mere money owners, or the 
birth of a philanthropist; the egg from which a thinker sprung, or the 
chrysalis which let loose a careless butterfly of fashion. 

In 1701 Governor Bellamont died. Two mouths after his death, be- 
fore the arrival of Lieutenant Governor Nanfan from Barbadoes, the colony 
was in a confused state; the people were split into factions, and party 
spirit was raging. Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, eldest son of the Earl of 
Clarendon, was appointed Governor of New York and the Jerseys, and 
Captain General. He was a reckless adventurer and profligate, whose sole 
claim to this command rested on his kinship to royalty. So eager was he 
to acquire wealth, wholly regardless of the wishes or interests of his sub- 
jects, that he alienated their affections. A public dinner was given in 
honor of his arrival, and he was presented with the freedom of the city in 
a gold box. In honor of the opening of his administration, his first act was 
to "order that all the soldiers of his majesty's garrison. Fort William 
Henry, in this city, that are his majesty's natural born subjects, be made 
freemen of this corporation gratis, any former law to the contrary notwith- 
standing, and that Mr. Mayor administer unto them the oath of a freeman, 
and grant unto them certificates of the same, under the seal of the city ac- 
cordingly." Those who were too poor to purchase their freedom were also 
made freemen. This gave them, as freemen, the right to trade, to vote and 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 2$ 

to be voted for, and to share in all other municipal privileges. The docks 
and slips of the city in this year were farmed for £25 a year. 

The months of June and July, 1702, caused much alarm to the natives 
of old New^ York, for they brought the first severe shock to the community. 
The Mayor, Thomas Hood, died, and so great was the sickness prevailing 
that the General Assembly was held at Jamaica, Long Island, Seventeen 
persons died in one day! The disease strongly resembled yellow fever, and 
was imported from St. Thomas. The epidemic was long remembered as 
"the great sickness of New York." 

On October 19 Philip French succeeded to the mayoralty, and during 
his term a grammar school was established. The corporation sent over to 
the Bishop of London for a schoolmaster, "as there is not any person within 
this city (with whose conveniency it would be agreeable) proper and duly 
qualified to take upon himself the office of schoolmaster of the said city." 
It was also recommended that "the Bishop of London send over hither a 
person of good learning, of pious life and virtuous conversation, of English 
extract, and of good and mild temper, and a part of the King's farm to be 
given for his support." It was not until 1705 that the school was estab- 
lished, with Andrew Clarke as master. This was before Yale College had 
begun to send forth its annual supply of teachers, and previous to the 
establishment of any college in this city. The charter of the city was first 
printed in this year. 

William Peartree became Mayor on October 4, 1703. This year the 
King's Farm was presented by Queen Anne to Trinity Church, and the 
foundation of immense revenues was laid. 

The French Protestants who fled from their country after the revoca- 
tion of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685, which deprived them 
of their religious freedom, built in 1704 the Church du St. Esprit, which 
stood in Pine street, near Nassau. The worshippers, according to the old 
chroniclers, were "most industrious, most intelligent and most religious, 
and worshipped in their native tongue." Mention was made of the religious 
zeal of the American Huguenots in a previous article. 

The Church du St. Esprit was built in the plainest style, of stone, 
plastered outside; it had a very steep roof and a venerable looking tower. 
Annexed to it was a cemetery. The march of improvement caused its demo- 
lition in the middle of 1800, and Mammon now reigns where the Nazarene's 
example was preached and prayers of thanks were offered by the Huguenots 
for the liberty to worship extended to them in America. 

On April 3 of this year the "Widow Rombouts and several other 
persons on the west side of Broadway are leveling the fortifications, and 
about to fence in the street fronting to Hudson River." This was so im- 
portant then that "Alderman Hutchings and Mr. Laroux are ordered to 
forthwith warn them from so doing, upon pain of being prosecuted at law." 

On April 11a petition was made to the authorities "by sundry prin- 
cipal inhabitants of this city" to prevent retail and wholesale vendues of 
goods within the city ("except by the freemen thereof"), "the same having 
drained not only this city, but the whole province, of current cash, to the 
very great grievance of the citizens." At this early date it appears the 
auction system was an evil of magnitude, entailing hardships on the people. 



26 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

but legal restraint was not inaugurated, nor were they taxed in any 
manner. 

The population of New York in 1700 was 6,000, so far as can be ascer- 
tained, and the people went about their pursuits "in a stolid and God- 
fearing manner." On May 25, 1704, the city owned 8,925 feet of land 
"between Mr. Beeckman's and low water mark, which was ordered not to 
be sold at less than threepence a foot." This land was situated in the 
heart of the city, near the Battery, and a fair valuation now would be 
$150 a front foot. Wall street, from Smith street (William street) to the 
English Church, was paved on the south side in this year. 

The first site occupied by the Society of Friends as a meeting house 
was in Green street alley, between Liberty street and Maiden Lane. They 
held services here from 1704 to 1740, when they moved to Liberty street. In 
1775 they erected a house in Pearl street. It gave way to the increase of 
population and the change of the residential quarter. 

In the autumn of 1705 considerable excitement was occasioned by the 
appearance of three English privateers, bringing a Spanish man-of-war of 
twenty guns as a prize into the harbor. The soldiers were elated with their 
victory, and during a quarrel which arose killed a young lieutenant. 

The year 1706 witnessed the first threatened attack on the city by a 
squadron of the French. War had been proclaimed by England against 
France and Spain, and the Assembly of 1703, deeming it expedient to in- 
crease the fortifications, voted £1,500 for the erection of two batteries at 
the Narrows, with the provision that the money should be used for no other 
purpose. It was raised by a poll tax, each member of the council to pay 
40 shillings; an Assemblyman, 20 shillings; a lawyer in practice, 20 shil- 
lings; every man wearing a periwig, five shillings and sixpence; a bachelor 
of twenty-five years and upward, two shillings and threepence; every free- 
man between the ages of sixteen and sixty, ninepence, and the owners of 
slaves, one shilling for each. The sum was raised, but regardless of the 
conditions the Governor drew it from the treasury and applied it to his own 
use, refusing to account to any one for its expenditure. The Assembly de- 
manded a treasurer, declaring they were Englishmen and had a right to 
control their own money. Cornbury dissolved the body with the remark, 
"I know of no right that you have, except such as the Queen is pleased 
to allow you." A new Assembly was convened by him, but it followed in 
the footsteps of its predecessor, and would not bow, and so the city was 
left defenceless. A French privateer had entered the harbor and terrified 
the inhabitants, and they had no security against other visitants. They 
had already paid for defence, and were not willing to make another invest- 
ment, to be appropriated as was the first. Necessity knew no law, how- 
ever, and io, 000 was voted, but the consent of Cornbury could not be ob- 
tained to have it disbursed by a person of the people's choosing. The 
French fleet was hourly expected, and the citizens were. summoned to aid 
in the work of strengthening the town with the money appropriated. No 
attack was made on the city, however, and the people were happy. 

Water street was extended from Old Slip to John street, and Broadway 
was paved from Trinity Church to the Bowling Green in 1707. These pave- 
ments were of cobblestone, the curbs of wood, the gutters were in the 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 27 

middle of the streets, and brick was used for the sidewalks. One of the 
markets established in 1691 by the Common Council in the following order 
was demolished: "That there be markets, one in Broadway over against 
the fort, the other under the trees by the Slipp; and that the butchers shall 
be obliged to keep flesh in both places, and that the country people shall 
bring flesh to each of the two places, and that no butchers' meat be killed 
within the city gates (or south of Wall street). Secondly, that eggs, butter 
and poultry be brought to said places for sayle. Thirdly, that fish be 
brought into the dock over against the City Hall (in Pearl street and Coen- 
ties Slip), or the house that Long Mary formerly lived in; likewise hearbs, 
fruite, rootes, E and B." 

Again we have an example of intolerance. Governor Cornbury pro- 
hibited Presbyterians from preaching in the city without his license, and 
two ministers were arrested and tried. On paying costs to the amount of 
$220 they were acquitted by the court. Ebenezer Wilson was Mayor at this 
time. 

The reign of Cornbury was short, for he made himself so odious in the 
eyes of the people that the citizens of New York and New Jersey petitioned 
for his removal. So many previous petitions had been sent to Queen Anne 
that she yielded, and revoked his commission. After his removal his 
creditors threw him into the debtors' prison in the upper story of the new 
City Hall, in Wall street, from which his father, the Earl of Clarendon, 
removed him. 

Cornbury was succeeded by Lord Lovelace in 1708. The latter died 
on May 5, 1709, and was succeeded by Richard Ingoldsby, who began to 
lay heavy taxes on the people. It seemed to be his desire to oppress the in- 
habitants from ulterior motives. They bent under the oppression, but did 
not break. Robert Hunter, of Scotch parentage, succeeded Ingoldsby, who 
had been removed because of mismanagement. Hunter was a young soldier 
of fortune, the friend of Addison and Swift, and the superior of his prede- 
cessors. 

Religious persecution in Germany in 1710 drove several hundred 
Palatinates to England, whence they embarked to the young city. Ten 
thousand pounds were appropriated by parliament to defray their expenses, 
and in return they indentured themselves for a term of years to Great 
Britain, to manufacture tar for the naval stores. Thus began German im- 
migration. "A scarcity of food was feared by the colonists" because of 
their invasion! They built a Lutheran church on the site afterward occu- 
pied by old Grace Church, corner of Rector street and Broadway. It stood 
until 1776, when it was destroyed by fire. In this year Jacobus Van Cort- 
landt was Mayor, and the council met at 9 o'clock in the forenoon. 

~ Preparations for war engrossed the attention of the people in 1711. 
Governor Hunter had joined the New England States in a project for 
the conquest of Canada — a favorite scheme of England at the time. On 
June 28 all the market houses except one were set apart for the building 
of bateaux to transport troops and stores to Canada, and on July 2 the 
General Assembly met in New York and issued bills of credit to the amount 
of £25,000 to defray the expense. The conquest was a failure, as the ships 



28 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



were lost among the rocks and islands of the St. Lawrence, and 860 men 
were drowned. The corporation this year passed the first law for inden- 
turing apprentices, the term of indenture to be strictly seven years. 

The bartering in flesh — and to their shame be it said — began with the 
establishing of a slave market in Wall street, near the East River, in 1711, 
and led the following year to an insurrection among the negroes, who set 
fire to the city and killed several inhabitants. Nineteen of the negroes were 
executed. On May 27, 1713, the Assmbly passed the first excise law, and 
the next year the corporation raised the license to sell strong drinks to 30 
shillings. 

"Cast your bread upon the waters," if only a ninepenny loaf, as wit- 
nesseth that "Abraham De Lancey had liberty to build an oven under- 
ground, opposite his house in Queen street, he paying for the same a nine- 
penny loaf of bread on the 1st day of May, yearly, for the use of the poor." 




RESIDENCE OF CAPT. WILLIAM KIDD, 1691. 
, (Now corner Pearl and Hanover streets.) 



CHAPTER V. 



(1711-1729.) 



First Poundkeeper and Scavenger — Heathcote Hall — Home for Paupers — 

First Public Clock — Ropewalk Established — First Presbyterian Church — 

Irish Tuber Introduced — First Tax Law — The "New York Gazette." 

The City Fathers of ye olden time placed a peculiar estimate on 
woman's sphere. "A ministering angel thou" was poetic fancy; a working 
angel was more to their taste. The men and women of the old city were 
engrossed in not alone getting all the wealth they could — that is, as much 
as Queen Anne and her representative permitted them to get — but in hold- 
ing what they had. A record of June 1, 1711, tells that the widow of 
Andreas Donn was continued in the office of scavenger of Broad street, at 
a salary of 11 pounds sterling, and in the order of removal of the city pound 
in this year Rebecca Van Schaick, widow, is mentioned as poundkeeper, for 
administering which office she received one-half of the fees, the other half 
going to the city. 

The lack of smoothness in the course of true love brought Caleb Heath- 
cote to the new country to forget his disappoinment. He was the son of 
the Mayor of Chester, England, and on his arrival entered politics in old 
New-York. He was elected Mayor in 1711, and served four years; then 
retired to Mamaroneck, where he built Heathcote Hall. His administration 
was without note. 

Speculators in 1712 began to look forward to new valuations on land, 
just as their successors are doing now, and Broadway between Maiden Lane 
and the park, then considered uptown, was levelled, and the city watch in- 
creased to six. It was proposed this year, as paupers were beginning to be 
numerous and troublesome, to provide a building where they could be 
looked after at the public expense, but at the same time contribute toward 
their own living. The scheme was not successful then. Twenty years after, 
however, in the rear of the present City Hall, on the Commons, a house was 
built and supplied with spinning wheels and shoemakers' tools, with the 
idea of making the ne'er-do-well inmates self-sustaining. It lasted for 
some time, but was manipulated in the interest of others who were not 
paupers, and went to pieces. 

John Johnson, a shipping merchant, became Mayor in 1714. With his 
administration the first public clock made its appearance. It was the gift 
of Stephen De Lancey, and was presented to the corporation, to be placed 
on the City Hall for the use of the city. De Lancey was the American 
ancestor of the family, and had fled from the persecutions of Louis XIV to 
New York. He was a representative in the Assembly, and the money he 
received as such (£50) he invested in the clock. 

Historians of New-York agree that Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne 
were the first victims of the cause of freedom. The people had chosen Leis- 

29 



30 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

ler to stand between them and a clique of ambitious men who desired to 
curb their civil and religious liberties, and his execution brought them 
closer together, and made it almost impossible for successive Governors to 
weaken the power of the people and strengthen that of the crown — the fixed 
policy of the English Government t' .n Assemblies were convened and 
dissolved from time to time, the repfesentatives protesting against the 
acceptance of schemes suggested by 'Bi'e Governor. In May, 1715, one 
Assembly met, and was dissolved on July 21 by the Governor. In 1716 a 
new one met, and through persuasion granted a revenue for three years to 
render officials independent of the people. This year the Governor estab- 
lished a Court of Chancery and appointed himself Chancellor, and the next 
year raised a tax of £16,607 to extinguish the colony debt. 

On January 3, 1718, a ropewalk was established in Broadway, opposite 
the park (then called the Commons, a piece of ground bounded on the east 
and west by Nassau street and Broadway, and north and south by Chambers 
and Ann streets, and covered with brush and underwood). Others were 
established afterward, and formed the basis of a flourishing trade. 

The Presbyterians this year, through their representatives, Gilbert 
Livingston, Thomas Grant, Patrick MacKnight and John Nicolls, purchased 
a piece of ground in Wall street, between Broadway and Nassau street, and 
near the old City Hall, for the site of a church. They asked permission to 
use the hall to worship in until their church was built. The corporation 
acquiesced on condition that they would not interfere with the courts. The 
following year, 1719, they took possession of the newly built church, the 
first of their denomination in New York. What a change had come over 
the authorities in fourteen years! Lord Cornbury in 1702 aimed at the 
establishment of the Episcopal Church. A handful of Episcopalians in the 
village of Jamaica, envious of the prosperity of their Presbyterian neigh- 
bors, who controlled that village, sought the protection of the Governor, 
with the result that one Sunday the little church, which had been erected 
in the village by vote of the inhabitants, but without provision for secur- 
ing it for any particular denomination, was taken possession of by them. 
The Governor sustained the claims of the Episcopalians, and litigation fol- 
lowed, but they retained possession until 1728. The esculent Irish tuber 
was introduced in New England in 1718 by a colony of Irish emigrants, 
who settled in Maine, and had brought it from Europe, where it had been 
introduced from Virginia. Its cultivation rapidly extended to New York, 
and was a valuable boon to the colony. May they never grow less! 

> On July 31, 1719, Governor Hunter left the colony in the command 
of Peter Schuyler, "who administered the province with great good sense 
and judgment. He was a faithful friend to the Indians, and many times 
saved the infant settlement from destruction." On the arrival of the newly 
appointed Governor, William Burnet, on September 17, 1720, Schuyler re- 
signed the direction of affairs. Jacobus Van Cortlandt had been appointed 
Mayor for the second time in 1719, but held the office for but one year, 
giving way to Robert Walton. Burnet was less avaricious than his prede- 
cessors. He married the daughter of a leading merchant of the colony, and 
thus coupled his interests with those of his subjects, but during his time 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEJV YORK. 31 

great complaints were made of an extortion, illegality and exorbitant fees in 
the Court of Chancery. On a petition to the Minister, after the death of 
George I, for his removal, Burnet was transferred to Massachusetts, and 
John Montgomerie succeeded him +R'-i728. 

In 1720 a tax of 2 per cent, .vas laid on European goods imported. 
This is the first mention in the ol manuscripts of a tariff duty. Robert 
Walton, a Holland merchant, was Mayor this year. In 1722 it was ordered 
that all slaves be buried by daylight, and that "a ferry to Long Island from 
Burger's path (Old Slip) be rented for £71." Burger's path, which in- 
cluded land in the vicinity of Hanover Square and William street, took its 
name from its owner, Borger Joris, one of the early Dutch settlers. William 
street was known as Borger's, and was afterward corrupted to Burger's. 

"1723 — Captain Peter Solgard, of H. M. ship Greyhound, engaged two 
i)irate sloops off this coast, commanded by Low, that had done much 
mischief, and killed many people, took one, and the other escaped in the 
night. Twenty-six of the pirates were executed at Rhode Island. Solgard 
was presented with the freedom of the city in a gold box." On July 29 
"great storm and hurricane, which ruined the docks and did much mis- 
chief, and caused the city to incur considerable expense for repairs." 

A religious dispute took place between Governor Burnet and Stephen 
De Lancey in 1724 regarding the dismissal of the pastor of the French 
Huguenot Church, in Pine street. Here is the record: "Rev. Louis Rou, 
dismissed on the charge that he had flagged in his duty and had introduced 
innovations into the Church discipline." The minister appealed to the 
Governor and Council from the decision of the congregation, and was sus- 
tained. Great excitement ensued, and when De Lancey was elected a Mem- 
ber of Assembly the Governor refused to administer the oath to him, alleg- 
ing he was not a subject of the crown. As De Lancey had left France for 
England before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and had received a 
patent conferring the rights of a citizen upon him from James II, on appeal 
to the Assembly his claims were sustained. And thus ended another of the 
troublous Church and State questions. 

In 1725 Johannes Janson became Mayor and saw the first newspaper 
printed in New York, on a small foolscap sheet, with the following head- 
ing: "New York Gazette. From Monday Oct. 16th to Oct. 23rd, 1725." 
The era of journalism began with it, and William Bradford was the 
printer. New York was the third of the colonies in which printing was 
introduced. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania preceded it. The first print- 
ing done was the laws of the Colony in 1694, and the next "A Letter of 
Advice to a Young Gentleman," in 1696, both by Bradford. 

Robert Lurting, a shipping merchant, succeeded Janson in 1726, and 
a corn market was established at the foot of Wall street. The income of 
the city the next year was £285 17s. 5d. 

With April 15, 1728, came John Montgomerie, Governor and Chan- 
cellor of New York and New Jersey. A groom of the bedchamber to the 
Prince of Wales, afterward George II, was he, of a yielding and indolent 
temperament. On his arrival the Mayor and corporation presented him the 
freedom of the city in a gold box, and the Assembly granted him five years' 
revenue for his support. In the first year of his administration "a lot of 



32 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

ground was granted to the Jews for a burying ground near the cripple 
bush or swamp, 112 feet long and 50 broad, situated opposite Chatham 
Square, corner of Fayette street (now Oliver street), then a long distance 
out of the city." Part of this cemetery still exists. 

Jacobus Roosevelt purchased in 1728 ten lots of ground, 25 by 120 
feet, for ilO a lot, in the swamp near the cripple bush (now the site of 
Roosevelt street). The city was gradually extending its limits, and the 
powder house which had been built a few years before on the Commons was 
considered in an unsafe place. A new magazine was determined on, and 
selected in the following: "Resolved, That a little island in the fresh water 
is appropriated as the most convenient place for building thereon a maga- 
zine or powder house." This "little island" was in Elm street. 

The Third, or Middle, Dutch Church, which fronted on Cedar, Liberty 
and Nassau streets, was built in 1729. For the first thirty years the ser- 
vices were performed exclusively in the Dutch language, after which Eng- 
lish was used half the time. It became the prison house of three thousand 
Americans in 1776, and was a riding school for the British cavalry. 

The rise and progress of the first public library of New York dates 
from 1729, when the corporation received notice from the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in London that 1,642 volumes 
had been bequeathed to it by the Rev. John Millington, rector of Newing- 
ton, England, and would be presented to the city. "They arrived safely in 
the ship Alexander, Captain Downing, and the books were arranged and a 
room appropriated for their safekeeping in the City Hall, and the thanks of 
the Corporation were politely returned for this munificent gift." To these 
was added a collection presented in 1700 by the Rev. John Sharp, who 
acted as librarian. He died soon after his appointment, and the books were 
neglected and forgotten until 1754, when a number of citizens founded the 
Society Library. In 1772 George III granted a charter to it, under the name 
of the New York Society Library, and it flourished until the Revolution, 
when the city fell into the hands of the British, and the library into the 
hands of the British soldiers. Through them the valuable collection was 
scattered, mutilated and destroyed. In 1783, when peace was finally de- 
clared, the society reunited and once more began to collect books. A 
library building was erected in Nassau street in 1793, but the collection 
outgrew its quarters and was removed temporarily to the Mechanics' So- 
ciety Building, in Chambers street, where it continued until 1840, when 
possession was taken of the new library on the corner of Broadway and 
Leonard street. Business rush forced it up to the Bible House and Astor 
Place until 1857. when it again moved, this time to University Place, be- 
tween Twelfth and Thirteenth streets. A varied career, the reader may well 
say, but the stuff our forefathers were made of should be a matter of pride 
with us. 

Threepence a foot was given for land on the west side of Broadway, 
near the Battery, in this year. To-day $150 a square foot would be 
laughed at, most likely, for the same ground as under price. Rector street 
and other streets south and west of it were laid out then. 



CHAPTER VI. 



(1730-1734.) 



First Court of Common Pleas — First Fire Department — The "New York 

Weekly Journal" — First Criminal Libel Case — 

Stage Between Boston and New York. 

The more one delves into the manuscripts that tell of the beginning of 
New York, with four wretched huts, up to the time she held her head erect 
and proclaimed herself the commercial metropolis of the Western Hemi- 
sphere, the more one wonders how the transformation was wrought. Brook 
and rivulet babbled where are now large office buildings. Grapes and straw- 
berries grew where at the present time men rush to achieve success in busi- 
ness. Forests with abundance of game and ponds swarming with fish ex- 
isted where the Harlemites live. The lake over whose waters the Indian 
guided his canoe is to-day the site of a municipal building. One might 
enumerate similar changes that would include all the downtown district, 
but the student with an observing eye and persistence in research has a 
field before him, the tilling of which will reveal phases of the city's growth 
that are overwhelming in Interest. The duty of picking here and there 
only those bits of information tucked away in voluminous and dusty old 
manuscripts for the amusement and instruction of the student devolves on 
the writer, but through them other vistas of surpassing interest will be 
revealed. 

To resume the chronology of the little city. The principal event in 
Governor Montgomerie's administration, in 1730, was the grant of an 
amended city charter. By it the sole power of establishing ferries about the 
island was vested in the corporation, all the profits accruing from them to 
go to the city. The market houses, docks, slips and wharves were also 
granted to it. A Court of Common Pleas was established. Provision was 
made for a new division of the city into seven wards, the limits to be de- 
termined by the council, each ward to choose its officers annually and 
whatever number of constables the council might direct, and to be the sole 
judge of their election and qualification. The justices of the peace for the 
city and county were to be the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen. They were 
to be empowered to hear and determine all pleas of 40 shillings and under, 
to administer oaths to freemen and officers of the city, and to make as 
many freemen as they saw fit. The people were not allowed, however, to 
elect their principal officers, such as Mayor, Recorder, Sheriff, Coroner and 
Tov/n Clerk. These were the Governor's so-called perquisites. 

The lower part of the city began to change after the charter went into 
effect. What was known before 1730 as the Strand, bounded by Whitehall, 

3.3 



34 



CRADLE DAYS OP XEIV YORK. 



Pearl, Moore and State streets, and used as a market-place, became more 
valuable, and was divided into seven lots. Here is the old manuscript 
record : 

May 6. A great sale of 7 lots of ground, near the Custom-house, and 
east of Whitehall street, for the following sums, and to the persons 
named, viz.: 

Lot No. 1. — To Stephen De Lancey il55 

Do. 2. — " " 151 

Do. 3. — To David Clarkson 155 

Do. 4. — To John Moore 275 

Do. 5. — To Stephen De Lancey 192 

Do. 6. — To Robt. Livingston, Jr. (son of Philip) 175 

Do. 7. — To Anthony Rutgers 239 

Lots in the same quarter of the city in 1686 sold for £35, and in the 
beginning of the twentieth century for an average of $40 a square foot. 

On September 11, 1732, "a small gore of land was given to Rip Van 
Dam, upon his petitioning for the same, at the present intersection of Lib- 
erty street and Maiden lane, of 103 feet in length, for the nominal sum of 
ten shillings, as being of little or no value to any one else but him." ^ 

The first steps in organizing a permanent Fire Department were taken 
in 1731. A few leather buckets, two fire hooks and poles and three or four 
ladders constituted the equipment of the old city for fighting fires. The 
corporation hearing that fire engines had been successfully introduced in 
the mother country, received permission to import two, and the next year 
they were brought to New York and placed in the City Hall. A few years 
afterward an engine house was built in Broad street, and in 1737 the first 
Fire Department, with twenty-five members, was organized. Its members 
were excused from performing military duty and from serving as con- 
stables or jurors. 

As facts are being chronicled, it would be well to state that in 1731 
"William Sharpas, town clerk for the last forty years, was allowed £28 
(extra) for his long and faithful services." This is the William Sharpas 
who, in 1699, received "one hundred feet of land for his good and faithful 
service, and his encouragement to continue so for the future." The fol- 
lowing may have something to do with William's, extra £28: "A tax was 
laid on wigs this year." 

Governor Montgomerie died on July 1, 1731, and Rip Van Dam, the 
eldest member of the council, succeeded him. He administered the govern- 
ment for thirteen months, until the arrival of Colonel William Cosby, who 
"was testy, despotic, and rapacious." Cosby had rendered a service to the 
colonists while in England by opposing an obnoxious sugar bill, and they 
were grateful to him. When he came they preseated him with £750 as a 
token of their gratitude. He was incensed at the smallness of the sum. and 
asked one of the council why the colonists did not add the shillings and 
pence. Cosby's first act was to produce a royal order for an equal division 
of the salary and perquisites of the office since the time of his appointment 
between Van Dam and himself, which Van Dam was willing to do, pro- 
vided Cosby would divide £6,000 in perquisites which he had received be- 



CRADLE DAYS OF XJilV YORK. 35 

fore coming. This condition was refused by Cosby, and he instituted pro- 
ceedings against Van Dam to recover what he considered his share of the 
salary. As Cosby was chancellor ex oflicio, and two of his intimate 
friends, James De Lancey and Adolphus Philipse, were the majority of the 
court before whom the case was tried. Van Dam lost. Chief Justice Morris, 
who supported the plea of Van Dam's counsel as to the non-jurisdiction of 
the court, was removed from office, and Van Dam was suspended from the 
council. 

The people of the old city became incensed at the Governor's action 
and also his evident partiality for English favorites. They had grown weary 
of the rapacity of the Crown's representative and the non-recognition of 
their appeals by the home government, and, looking around for some one to 
espouse their cause against the attacks of the "New York Gazette," which 
derived its support from the government and sustained Cosby, they found 
John Peter Zenger, a printer, then collector of the city taxes, ready to cross 
swords in their defence. Zenger was the son of one of the Palatinates, before 
mentioned, and had been apprenticed to the owner of the "New York Ga- 
zette" when young. When the people demanded a champion of their rights 
he set up the "New York Weekly Journal," the second newspaper pub- 
lished in New York, and in its columns violently opposed the Governor and 
his adherents. He spared none. He attacked the permanent revenue, the 
Court of Chancery and everything that was oppressing the people. His 
articles were caustic and satirical, and enraged those against whom they 
were directed. The Governor and council regarded them incendiary, and 
declared that the writer should be punished. The people, who up to this 
time had been delighted with the course of affairs, became indignant at 
this action of the Governor and council, and attempted to resist it. On No- 
vember 2, 1734, four numbers of the paper v/ere ordered burned at the 
pillory by the hangman in the presence of the Mayor and Aldermen. When 
the order v/as presented at the quarter sessions the Aldermen protested 
against it, the court refused to enter it, and the common hangman was for- 
bidden to carry it out. A negro slave of the Sheriff, however, burned the 
papers in the presence of the Governor's supporters. Later, on November 12, 
Zenger, the editor of the paper, was arrested on the charge of criminal libel 
— the first case in the annals of New York — and thrown into prison in the 
City Hall, in Wall street, where, not being able to comply with the order 
of the court to give bail of £ 400, with two additional sureties of £ 200 
each, he continued to edit his paper, "giving directions to his assistants 
through a chink in the door." In the beginning of the following year, the 
Grand Jury refusing to indict him, "information was filed against him for 
false, scandalous, seditious and malicious libel," and on August 4, 1735, his 
trial took place. The only three lawyers of eminence in the city were re- 
tained by the government, so that Zenger was left without able counsel, 
which was what the court desired. Zenger's friends, however, secretly en- 
gaged Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, then eighty years old, an able and 
eloquent advocate, who was imbued with liberal principles and opposed to 
the despotic tyranny which England, through her representatives, was be- 
ginning to exert over her colonies. At the trial he pleaded eloquently the 
cause of Zenger, and so cogent was his reasoning that the jury returned a 



36 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

verdict of "Not guilty." Hamilton was lionized by the people, a dinner was 
given to him, and the freedom of the city was presented to him in a gold 
box, the money for which was subscribed privately. The freedom of the 
press was established by this trial, and the precedent for resistance arose 
which culminated in the Revolution. 

"The first stage between Boston and New York began to run in 1732." 
It made one trip a month, and was fourteen days doing it. In this year the 
vacant space in front of Fort Amsterdam "was leased to Frederick Philipse, 
John Chambers and John Roosevelt for ten years, at a yearly rent of a pep- 
percorn, to be used as a bowling green." Walks were to be made, and it 
was to be used for the recreation and delight of the inhabitants. The streets 
on each side were to be fifty feet wide. Dutch lads and lasses held their May 
Day festivities there, and later on Liberty's triumphant shout mingled 
with the crackling flames made by burning the stamped paper furnished 
by the British Government and by royal effigies. To-day it is the first 
ground in the city the liberty loving foreigner sets foot on, marred a little, 
however, by the railroad on stilts. 

On May 5, 1733, Courtlandt street was opened by the proprietors and 
registered as a public street, and Alexander Malcolm, schoolmaster, was 
paid a salary of £40 a year for teaching Latin, Greek and mathematics. 
With this last record we are told by the chronicler that, notwithstanding 
the success the colonists met in the suit for libel, and the position they had 
taken against the Governor, when the Duke of Grafton's youngest son. 
Lord Fitzroy, arrived they waited on him and presented him with a gold 
box and the freedom of the city. What obsequiousness and fulsome adula- 
tion these old New Yorkers possessed! The chronicler says, also, "that while 
£ 14 8s. was paid for this box, but £ 10 could be ill afforded for the quar- 
ter's salary of the public schoolmaster." 

The present City Hall Park in this year was a level plain, and known 
as the "Flat." It was the place of public execution, the gallows being near 
the old Hall of Records, lately demolished. North of it lay the Fresh 
Water Pond, which tradition declared to be bottomless, and its inhabitants, 
roach and sunfish, to be holy. The city authorities in 1733, "to preserve 
these fish," forbade any person to fish in it with a net or in any other 
way." The Tombs is now on its site. 

"All Beekman's swamp sold to Jacobus Roosevelt for £ 100." This 
was in 1734. The land was covered with tangled briars, and "lay on the 
east side of the city," in the vicinity of Ferry street. Roosevelt laid out 
the ground in fifty lots, and established eight tanneries on it. It is the 
leather district of the present New York. 



CHAPTER VII. 



(1734-1745.) 



Quakers Granted Right to Vote — First Poorhouse — Law Regarding Riding 

on Shafts of Cart — Gaming' Houses Denounced by Law 

— Founding- of New York Society Library. 

Ill their yeai'ly celebrations the people of the present New York vary 
but slightly from the customs of their ancestors. The five national festivals 
of the Dutch — Christmas, New Year, the Passover, Whitsuntide and St. 
Nicholas Day — are still celebrated. The "Merry Christmas" greetings are 
heard; the interchange of visits on the first day of the year takes place 
among some of the people; egg rolling still goes on, and Christmas Eve, in 
the estimation of the little folks, and of some of the big ones, too, is the 
best festival of all. St. Nicholas, by the way, is the patron saint of New 
York. He presided as the figurehead of the first emigrant ship that touched 
her shores, gave his name to the first church erected within her walls, and 
is regarded as having especial charge of the destinies of the city. 

In social affairs some of the spirit of the ancient Knickerbocker re- 
mains, though the "quilting bees," "apple bees" and "husking bees" have 
passed away, giving place to musicals, bridge teas and kaffee-klatches. Late 
hours and dissipation were wholly unknown in the olden times, and those 
who joined in the social affairs of the colony partook of chocolate and 
waffles, instead of the dyspepsia breeding concoctions of the French, Italian 
or German cook. After a dance, which generally terminated the evening's 
amusement, the women, in their cloth jackets and short quilted skirts, and 
the men, in their long-waisted coats, knee breeches and low crowned hats 
of beaver, wended their way home at 10 o'clock, as befitted the staid de- 
corum of the city. To return to the chronology: 

In 1733, by an act of the legislature, the Quakers had restored to them 
the right to vote. This right had been taken from them early in 1700, 
when intolerance was rampant in the colony. In 1734, the number of 
paupers having increased to an extent which warranted immediate action 
by the authorities for their support, the first poorhouse was erected on the 
Commons. It was a two-story building, a part of which was given over 
later to the confinement of unruly slaves. The church wardens were ap- 
pointed overseers, with authority to punish the recalcitrant non-working 
pauper. Children were taught to read and write here, and instruction was 
given to them in some sort of employment which would be a future benefit 
to them. The inmates assisted in cultivating a large garden surrounding 
the building, the products of which were used by the institution. 

Here are two simple items which show the care exercised by our fore- 
fathers in the conduct of affairs of the city: "The Treasurer is ordered to 

3; 



38 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

provide a suitable cloth to covei' the table in the coui't-room, of blew or 
green cloth, not over 12s. per yard," and "John Peter Zenger is to print the 
charter for £ 7." With an eye to business, the authorities sold copies of this 
charter at three shillings each. 

Robert Lurting, who had served as Mayor for nine years, died in 1735, 
and was succeeded by Paul Richard, a merchant of French extraction, who 
retained office for three years. During the latter's term Governor Cosby 
made further attempts against the liberties of the people. "He refused to 
dissolve the Assembly, and, contrary to their own wishes and the petition of 
the citizens, he ordered a resurvey of the old grants and patents, in the 
hope of deriving a revenue from the fees. He also destroyed valuable docu- 
ments which had been intrusted to him by the corporation of Albany, and 
which were obstacles in the way of his acquisitions." His schemes were 
checked, however, by his death on March 7, 1736, and George Clark, the 
second eldest member in the Council, succeeded him. Van Dam, who was 
legally Cosby's successor and the oldest member of the Council, had 
been removed by the Governor at a meeting of the Council held in his 
chamber prior to his death. Events leading up to the trial of John Peter 
Zenger for libel will explain this action of the Governor. Clarke's ap- 
pointment to the Governorship caused new dissensions among the people, 
and they rallied around Van Dam. It was confirmed, however, in dispatches 
from England on October 14, and the signs of hostility to him ceased. 

The aim of this Lieutenant Governor — for such was his commission- — 
was the securing of a princely fortune hurriedly, knowing that his appoint- 
ment would last only until the arrival of a new Governor. With this end 
in view, he ingratiated himself with both parties, but v/as unsuccessful in 
obtaining from the representatives of the people a greater revenue than any 
of the other representatives of the crown. During his incumbency an act 
disfranchising the Jews was passed by the Assembly, and met with his 
approval. 

"Ordered, that Servos Vlierboom, Jacob Pitt and Abram Blanck, three 
ancient and infirm cartmen, be licensed to sit upon the shafts of their carts, 
and drive the same for their ease and relief, and better support of them- 
selves and family, provided they drive not their carts faster than a v/alk 
or foot pace, and not a trot, but slowly and patiently." This was in 1736. 
A law had been passed on March 7, 1683, to this effect: "No cartman al- 
lowed to ride on his cart, and enjoined to behave civilly to all." What relief 
from excessive burdens could be given to the patient beasts by our Alder- 
men if they would take pattern after our forefathers! Gaming houses were 
denounced by law this year, showing that the enterprising Yankee had be- 
gun to operate among the Diedrich Knickerbockers. 

^ In 1737 the "Town of Brooklyn disputed the Corporation right to the 
ferry, and the city retained the Recorder, Daniel Horsmander, and Joseph 
Murray, Esq., as counsel for a doubloon each." Brooklyn Ferry, as it was 
called, in 1693 ran between Broad street, New York, and the foot of Jorale- 
mon street, Brooklyn, and was leased for £ 147 a year. As the city in- 
creased and extended eastward the "ferry stairs" were changed to Old 
Slip, Fly (or, correctly, Vli, the Dutch word for valley), Market and Fulton 
street. In 1698 it was leased for seven years at £ 165 a year, and in 1707 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 39 

for £180 a year. In 1722 there was a ferry from Burger's Path, which 
was mentioned before, which was let for £ 70. The suit mentioned was not 
definitely settled for more than a hundred years after it was begun. The 
old ferry house in Broad street was torn down in 1825. 

In 1706 all the real and personal estate of the town of Brooklyn was 
valued at £3,122 12s., the tax on which was £41 3s. 7d., and the whole 
county tax £201 16s. 6d. Five years previous a piece of land 100 feet 
square within the village was sold for £75. 

Old New York's "good debts due to her in 1737 were £387 15s. 7d., 
and the bad debts due to her were £ 1,240 3s. Od.," showing her lack of 
discretion and opening the way for an argument on the side as to whether a 
bad debt is a debt at all. Water street, which had received its name the 
previous year, was extended four hundred feet from Fulton street to Peck 
Slip this year, and Trinity Church was enlarged on the north and south 
sides. 

June 28, 1738, "Quarantine laws were passed to prevent the importa- 
tion of the smallpox and 'spotted fever' from South Carolina, Antigua and 
Barbadoes." The smallpox was raging in South Carolina at this time, and 
the colonists, profiting by the experience of seven years before, insisted that 
all suspected vessels should anchor at Bedlow's Island and be visited and 
examined by physicians before permission was given to them to discharge 
their cargoes. 

Our old friend William Sharpas, after serving the corporation as Town 
Clerk for forty-seven years, died in 1739. The number of houses in the city 
was 1,416, sixteen only having been built in seven years. 

John Cruger, a merchant of the city, who in his young days was en- 
gaged in slave trading, succeeded Paul Richard as Mayor in 1739. During 
the first part of his term a large market house was erected in Broadway, op- 
posite Liberty street, and he officiated as clerk. These markets were valu- 
able as money makers to the city, and strict supervision was maintained 
over them by the municipal authorities. 

Rumors of England having declared war against Spain reached the 
colonists on October 23 of this year, through the captain of an English 
ship obtaining permission from the Governor and Council to impress thirty 
seamen. The old documents state that Mayor Cruger strenuously opposed 
such action on the part of thQ authorities, and "saved the country from 
disgrace in the future." The next year the New York Society Library was 
founded, and on March 18, 1741, "a dreadful fire broke out in the Fort, 
which destroyed the Secretary's office and the old Dutch Church. A reward 
of £100 was offered to discover the perpetrator of the' same." This was 
the inception of the celebrated Negro Plot, a history of which has been 
given. There were about twelve thousand inhabitants at this time, one- 
sixth of whom were negro slaves. Historians place little credence in the 
so-called facts gathered regarding the Negro Plot. The witnesses exam- 
ined by the court were persons of the vilest character, the evidence was 
contradictory and was extorted under the fear of death, and, altogether, the 
plot's existence may be attributed to the blindness of religious intolerance 
and the disordered imaginations of the citizens of old New York, caused by 
fear of the Jesuits. 



40 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

The year 1742 was marked by the breaking out of a malignant epidemic 
resembling yellow fever. Two hundred persons succumbed to it. "A 
memoir of it was written by Lieutenant Governor Golden, for which the 
thanks of the Gommon Council of the city were voted to him." The winter 
of this year was known as the "Hard Winter." Intense cold continued 
from November, 1740, to March, 1741. The Hudson was frozen over, and 
snow was six feet deep on the level. 

Here is a trinity taken from the records of October 7, 1741: "Mothers 
or fathers of bastard children to pay a fine of £ 10 or suffer corporal pun- 
ishment." "Gards, truck or billiard playing prohibited under a penalty of 
$25," and "a bill passed to prevent clandestine marriages." 

On September 22, 174.3, George Glinton, Gaptain General and Governor 
of the province, arrived, succeeding Lieutenant Governor Glark. The 
usual gold box, congratulatory address and freedom of the city were re- 
ceived by him in "an easy and indolent way." Affairs of the colony went 
on smoothly under him for a time, the Assembly having voted him a liberal 
revenue for the first year, and at the same time limiting its existence and 
the existence of all future Assemblies to seven years. In his anxiety to 
improve his fortunes he formed an alliance with Cadwallader Golden 
against his first friend, Ghief Justice De Lancey, which occasioned opposi- 
tion and stirred up such a fierce contest that, fearing the downfall of his 
administration, he counseled Golden to withdraw from the province. Wheat 
was quoted at 3s. 6d. a bushel in 1743, and coal was imported from Eng- 
land "as cheaper fuel than wood, which was 30s. N. York currency per 
fathom." 

"1744 — Land granted to Gaptain Peter Warren, for public services." 
On October 15 of this year Stephen Bayard was appointed Mayor, and in 
1745 the first circulating library was established, with James Parker, 
printer, as librarian to the corporation. The books comprising the library 
had been bequeathed in 1729 by the Rev. John Millington, of Neurington, 
England, and the librarian had permission "to let them out to be read at 
sixpence apiece, those borrowing to give security for double the value of 
each set taken out, the corporation to have the preference." Parker was to 
keep the books in repair at his own cost, and to send for new books to 
supply the place of old ones lost. The scheme is a paternal one to-day, but 
the basis of it a few years ago was the system of 1745. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



(1745-1753.) 



City Officials Watched the Drawing of Government Lotteries — First Reward 

for Firemen — Erection of First Theatre — Origin of Public Exchanges — 

Governor Osborne Succeeds Clinton and Kills Himself. 

The variability of the weather in and around New York occasions 
much comment from the strangers within her gates, and frequently 
causes Vv'onder among many of her citizens. Were it not for the intense 
curiosity of the New Yorker, the weather's fretful moods would pass 
unnoticed. But when any unusual condition prevails he must have the 
opinion of the weather "sharps," the meteorologists and the "oldest inhab- 
itant," and the relation, if any, of seismic conditions in Timbuctoo with 
Old Sol's pranks. He is catered to by the newspapers every day, and yet is 
apparently not satisfied. For his further interest here is a history of 
weather conditions in New York over one hundred years ago from an old 
manuscript, by which he may draw as many comparisons as his years 
permit: 

^ "The average temperature of our atmosphere throughout the year is 
55 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer; and that is also the temperatvire 
of the deepest wells. The greatest degree of cold ever experienced is si.x 
or ten degrees below zero; but that is very rare, only one or two instances 
having occurred within a century, when the bay and harbor were partially 
closed with ice for a few days. In winter the thermometer rarely sinks 
lower than ten or twenty degrees below the freezing point, and in a few 
hours the cold always moderates. The vicinity of the Atlantic Ocean and 
the Gulf Stream produces a perceptible influence on our atmosphere, and 
conduces to ameliorate the rigor of the winter. The snow seldom continues 
longer than two or three weeks in January or February, and early in March 
the winter breaks up. The highest temperature in summer is seldom more 
than 80 or 90 degrees, and is never of long continuance. The sultriness is 
frequently relieved by refreshing showers and winds from the north and 
west, accompanied by vivid lightning and loud peals of thunder. From the 
middle of September to about the last of October the atmosphere will gen- 
erally vie with any in the world for serenity and beauty; indeed, that 
period is by far the pleasantest of any season of the year in this climate. 

"Winter usually sets in about Christmas and continues for about two 
months. The first frosts appear about the middle of October, and the last 
are usually seen in April, and very rarely in May. Gardening in the vicinity 
begins in March, and the forests are in full leaf in the letter part of April 
or the beginning of May. Sudden changes of temperature occur in summer 

41 



42 CRADLE DAYS OF XEU' YORK. 

and winter which will cause colds and its concomitants, consumption and 
other diseases, but New York, generally speaking, is as healthy a spot as 
any city in the world." 

In 174 5 Lady Murray was the possessor of the only coach in New York. 
It had been imported a short time before, and "had caused much comment 
among the citizens." On July 10 of this year "news arrived, and was com- 
municated to the Mayor and Corporation by the Governor, that H. M.'s 
forces had captured Cape Breton, and ordered in consequence that a great 
bonfire be made at Spring Garden, and twenty gallons be sent there and be 
given to the people." As the chronicler failed to tell the important thing in 
this item, being ashamed, perhaps, we will "pass it on." 

The markets in 1745 were flourishing. From their old position, "under 
the trees in front of the fort," near the corner of Water and Whitehall 
streets, they were moved, as the city enlarged east and north, first to the 
foot of Broad street, then to Coenties Slip, and subsequently to Old Slip. It 
was necessary at this time to speak the Dutch language when marketing in 
them. 

Few people are aware of the part the lottery system played in the old 
days of New York and in her upbuilding. Here is a memorandum of August 
29, 1746: "Resolved, nem. con. dis., That this board attend the drawing 
of the government lottery in their turns, viz., the Mayor and Recorder the 
first day, and on the next the senior Aldermen and Councilman, and so on." 
At this date the drawings took place at irregular intervals, but after 1821, 
when the new consti^^ution of the State prohibited the granting of new lot- 
teries after the previous ones were fulfilled, they were drawn once in two 
or three weeks. At the time of their prohibition there were enough still un- 
drawn to continue the business for many years. ^^ Lottery dealers were 
licensed by the Mayor at $250 a year, and this money was turned over in 
1829 to the Orphan Asylum and the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. 
"Within ten years," said an authority in 1828, "the number of ticket 
venders has multiplied to a great extent, and they display great ingenuity 
in their puffs, advertisements and other expedients to extend the sale of 
their tickets, and in coaxing the ignorant and careless out of their hard- 
earned money, and to dupe the credulous purchaser, by which immense sums 
are yearly sported with by the American public, to the great advantage of a 
few cunning individuals, but at a dreadful sacrifice of the morality and 
resources of the people." 

To go back to our events in sequence. On January 14, 1747, a fire 
occurred at the City Hall, and "the sum of £ 8 was voted to be given to two 
firemen, Duncan Brown and James Evetts, for their activity and exertions in 
extinguishing the fire." This was the first recognition of acts of bravery by 
fire fighters. 

In 1748 the scheme of making the Governor independent of the As- 
sembly by a permanent revenue vyas revived by Governor Clinton. A five 
years' appropriation was urged by him without result, though the vengeance 
of the King was threatened in case of non-compliance. This, with his re- 
fusal to punish the captain of one of His Majesty's warships who had fired 
on a party of colonists returning to Elizabethtown from New York, killing 
one of their number, exasperated the people and caused a powerful oppo- 



CRADLE DAYS OP NIUV YORK. 4.I 

sition to rise against him. The Assembly grew more reiiractory and was 
prorogued, and Clinton, worn with the unsuccessful struggle to obtain his 
demands, asked England to accept his resignation. Sir Danvers Osborne 
succeeded him. 

On February 19 of this year it was "Ordered, That every Common 
Councilman, on being summoned by notice left at his house by some white 
person, and not attending at half an hour after the ringing of the bell, be 
fined 2s. 6d., or if not attending at all that day, .5s." 

Another important request was agreed to by the Council on June 28: 
"Nicholas Bayard, owner of a strip of ground on the west side of the 
Broadway, adjoining the English churchyard and the Chief Justice's lot, 
offered, if the city would give him as much off from the south side as he 
owned on the north, he would leave a street twenty-one feet in width from 
Broadway to Comfort's Dock." This is the present Thames street. The 
number of houses this year was 1,834, an increase of 418 in eleven years; 
with a new improvement by Jacobus Roosevelt — the opening of Ferry street. 

An important event occurred in 1750, the erection of the first theatre 
in New York. The earliest plays in the city were given by amateurs in 
a store on Conger's Wharf, near Old Slip. The performances were of the 
light comedy order, and the actors in them the young men and women 
of the colony. The first regular theatre was a stone building, in the rear 
of the Dutch church, in Nassau street, with a Mr. Hallam as manager. The 
old records say "the company was tolerably good." Whether through lack 
of attendance or appreciation, or because of caustic criticism, Mr. Hallam 
removed his company to Jamaica, and the colonists went unamused, so far 
as theatres were concerned, until 1760, when one was opened in Beekman 
street, a few doors below Nassau, under the auspices of Cadwallader Golden. 
"The Assembly frowned on it, considering it detrimental to good morals, 
and the Mayor attempted to obtain the passage of a law prohibiting all dra- 
matic performances within the precincts of the city." His effort failed, and 
the theatre's manager, Philip Miller, continued to furnish amusement to the 
people until the days of the Stamp Act, when some insulting allusion in a 
play then being produced was the cause of its destruction by the Liberty 
Boys, of immortal memory. The third theatre was in John street, of which 
notice will be taken as the chronology proceeds. 

On April 26, 1750, Dey street was opened, regulated and paved. Men- 
tion is made in the manuscripts that from Broadway to the river at high 
water mark its descent was twenty-six feet two inches. Beekman street 
was also laid out and paved on August 16 of this year. Here is an im- 
portant item: "The markets were leased to Skaats for £106 per annum 
and the slips for £110. The Mayor claimed the rent of the markets as 
clerk of the same by charter, but the Council refused to allot him the 
same." 

That baneful business, the selling of liquors, kept march with the 
progress of the city up to 1750, as 196 persons were licensed, the sum paid 
for the licenses being £258 6s. The churches, however, began to raise their 
heads in New York and to act as deterrents to those with vicious tenden- 
cies. In 1751 the Moravian church was built in Fulton street, and in 1752 
St, George's church, next to Trinity the oldest Episcopal church in this city. 



44 ' CRADLE DAYS OF NEIV YORK. 

was erected in Beekman street. By agreement it separated from Trinity 
and became a distinct parish in 1811. On January 5, 1814, it was destroyed 
by fire, but with the aid of Trinity Church it was rebuilt and consecrated 
in November, 1815. With other churches in the downtown section of the 
city, it was forced uptown to make room for the city's increasing commer- 
cial life. 

Anotlier interesting item: "Jacob Turk ordered to buy six small speak- 
ing trumpets for the Corporation." 

The first building for a public exchange was erected in Broad street, 
at or near the intersection of Pearl street, in 175 2. "The Corporation gave 
£ 100 toward its erection, and the balance was raised by private subscrip- 
tion by John Watts and other respectable merchants." It was leased on 
February 11, 1755, for one year for £ 30, and in 1758 for £ 50 a year. It is 
mentioned as the place of frequent public meetings, when that part of the 
city was the chief seat of trade. In 1784 it was turned into a market place, 
and in 1785 the French Consul, Mr. St. John, asked permission to use it as a 
place of worship for Catholics. On March 15, 1799, it was ordered to be re- 
moved. The founders of the first exchange had peculiar ideas regarding its 
situation, as a pier extended in front of it as far as Water street, and an- 
other projected at right angles from the east and west sides, leaving suffi- 
cient space for the entry of vessels, and forming a spacious and secure dock. 

The successor of Governor Clinton, Sir Danvers Osborne, arrived in the 
city on September 7, 1753. He was welcomed warmly by the people, but 
underneath their exuberance a spirit of rebellion had been cultivated. He 
also was charged to maintain the royal prerogatives and to demand of the 
Assembly a permanent revenue, to be disbursed by the Governor alone, with 
the advice and consent of the Council. On Septmber 12 the new Governor 
convened the Council and laid his instructions before them. He was told 
by it that the Assembly would never yield obedience, the Chief Justice, De 
Lancey, who stood beside him, confirming the Council's information. Gov- 
ernor Osborne was cast down at the turn affairs had taken. The fractious- 
ness of the people over whom he had been sent to rule, and with whom, 
historians believe, he desired to maintain amicable relations, together 
with the derangement of his reason through the loss of his wife prior to 
his departure for his new post, caused him such suffering that he com- 
mitted suicide. He was buried in Trinity churchyard, though protest was 
made by the rector, who, however, was overruled by the Council. 



CHAPTER IX. 



(1753-1758.) 



Old Burial Places — Founding and Early Annals of King's College — Mag- 
nificent Home of a Merchant Prince — First Staten Island Ferry — 
St. Andrew's Society Established — The Debtors' Jail. 

On Fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And Glory guards with solemn round 

The bivouac of the dead. 

New York's "bivouacs of the dead" within the old city's limits will re- 
quire a more substantial thing than glory to guard them during this cen- 
tury. Just now commercialism rampant and speculation couchant have eyes 
on at least one of these "unresting preachers of shadow and reality," and 
perhaps before the half of the century is over that reminder of an era of 
sterling virtues, of honest and patriotic lives. Trinity Churchyard, will have 
been swallowed by one of New York's never sleeping worshippers of the 
golden calf, and towering above her silent makers of history will be a sky- 
scraper whose occupants will care little for the hallowed ground on which 
the building stands. 

Millions of dollars have been offered at one time or another for old 
Trinity's site, but so far it has been guarded sturdily by the vestry of her 
parish against the desecrating touch of speculation. Why? Because Trinity 
is American, and, while New Yorkers are forgetful of the historical associa- 
tions surrounding her God's acre, there are thousands of visitors who pay 
homage to the known and unknown among her dead. ^ 

What a stretch of memory it is from 1639 to 1909! And yet the earliest 
record of burial in Trinity — that of a young Holland maiden — is in the 
former year, more than half a century before the first Trinity Church was 
erected. At that time Trinity was the new burying ground of New Amster- 
dam, and was far away from the little dorp that clustered around Old Slip 
and the fort. The latest i*ecords of burial are of those who fought for 
the union of the States in the 60's. On Trinity's tombstones are cut 
the names of men eminent in professional and business life in the old and 
new city, and men who patriotically strove to leave "footprints on the 
sands of Time" — Francis Lewis, a signer of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence; William Bradford, editor of New York's first paper; Colonel Marinus 
Willett, of Revolutionary fame; Robert Fulton, who launched the first 
steamboat on the Hudson; Captain Lawrence, whose last battle cry, "Don't 
give up the ship!" rolls down the ages; Captain Lawrence's widow, who 
was but twenty-five when her husband achieved immortal glory, and who 

,45 



46 CRADLE DAYS OP XFJV YORK. 

lived fifty-two years in her widowhood; Alexander Hamilton, who assisted 
in making the union of States possible; Charlotte Temple, with slag sunk 
in the turf which tells of a short life sadly ended, and many other notable 
ones rest beneath Trinity's greensward. The gates of the churchyard are 
always open, inviting the student of New York's past to visit the shrines 
of patriotism and be an addition to the few who treasuer memories of her 
illustrious dead. 

Lest we forget our chronology and that all absorbing topic, the weather, 
in 1753 and the two years following, "the weather was so mild that sloops 
went from New York to Albany in January and February." 

James De Lancey, Lieutenant Governor, assumed direction of affairs in 
the colony in 1753. His legacy from Sir Danvers Osborne to insist on a per- 
manent revenue and to refuse to sign all annual appropriations until it 
was granted placed him in a difficult position, as he had endeared himself 
to the people by opposing the scheme when put forth by Osborne. He ful- 
filled his oath, however, by urging the Assembly to conform to the royal in- 
structions, while he pressed the claims of the people on the home govern- 
ment, and eventually obtained the concessions they desired. 

On June 19, 1754, the Canadians began their aggressions upon the 
frontier settlements, much to the discontent of the colonists, and a congress 
of deputies from the colonies met at Albany "to take measures for the com- 
mon safety." De Lancey presided, and an alliance with the Iroquois was 
made. It was at this congress that Benjamin Franklin presented his plan 
for the union of the colonies, v/hich was never carried into effect, though it 
suggested the idea of a confederation which afterward matured into the 
federal union. 

King's College, Columbia College, Columbia University — such are the 
titles indicating the progress educationally of one of New York's institu- 
tions of learning. Columbia University was originally founded by royal 
charter in the year 1750, under the name of King's College, by which title 
it was known until the Revolution. Its first site was at the foot of Park 
Place, which at this time went only to Church street. The institution was 
established by lottery and incorporated by Governor De Lancey, who signed 
and sealed the charter on October 31, 1754, though, owing to internal dis- 
sensions in the management, it was not delivered until the following May. 
By the provisions of the charter none but Episcopalians were eligible as 
presidents — a regulation which occasioned ill feeling in other religious 
bodies, and resulted in attempts to break down the college by the Presby- 
terians. The newspapers of the old city, "The Weekly Mercury," a govern- 
ment organ, and "The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle," hav- 
ing fallen into the hands of the Episcopalians, sustained that party in the 
controversy, leaving the Presbyterians unsupported until 1753, when "The 
Independent Reflector" was established by them. The question of religious 
supremacy was argued in these journals, but the Episcopalian side rose 
superior, owing to the influence of Governor De Lancey. and they retained 
control of the college for a long time. 

By the original charter tlve various rights and immunities enjoyed by 
the English universities were secured to this seminary. The president was 
required to belong to the Church of England, and a form of prayer collated 



CRADLE DAYS OF XEJV YORK. 47 

from the liturgy of that Church, with an appropriate prayer for the institu- 
tion, was to be used daily, morning and evening, in the college chapel. No 
religious test, however, was required of any of the members of the college 
or the professors, and all denominations were equally entitled to receive 
the benefits of education. In the year 1769 a faculty of medicine was an- 
nexed to the college, which existed until 1813, when the College of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons, established in 1807, absorbed it. 

On April 6, 1726, an order was issued by the Committee of Public Safe- 
ty, "directing the college buildings to be prepared within eight days for the 
reception of the military. The students, in consequence, retired to their 
respective homes, and, the library and apparatus having been deposited for 
safekeeping in the City Hall, the college edifice was converted into a mili- 
tary hospital." At the close of the Revolution, by an act of the State legis- 
lature of May 1, 1784, a board was appointed to superintend the general in- 
terests of education throughout the State, under the title of Regents of the 
University, and also to act as trustees of the college. On April 13, 1787, by 
act of the legislature, the name King's College was changed to Columbia 
College, and a new board of trustees was appointed. The first public com- 
mencement of the reorganized college was held in 1786. In 1829 the num- 
ber of students was one hundred and fifty, and the tuition $90 a year. The 
number of graduates up to that year had been about eight hundred. What 
a roster of names of men who have graduated from her and achieved na- 
tional prominence Columbia has! Too many to name here. But one will be 
named, Alexander Hamilton, graduate of King's College. 

In 1754 the Walton house was built in Pearl street by William Walton, 
a merchant and son-in-law of James De Lancey. When Pearl street was 
known as Queen street and was the aristocratic part of the old city, this 
house was in its glory. Elegantly fitted up and furnished luxuriously, the 
fame of its splendor extended to England, and was quoted as proof of the 
extravagance of the Colonists. The existence of such splendor was also proof 
to the mother country that the people could stand unlimited taxation. The 
richness of its furnishings, its gold plate and its superb entertainments 
were spoken of in Parliament in defence of the passage of taxation laws 
on the Colony. The house was of yellow Holland brick. It was encircled 
with balustrades, with a garden extending down to the river, and men 
notable in history passed their evenings in it. It was torn down years 
ago, and now the tide of traffic roars on the spot where once a future King 
of England danced a minuet. 

A ferry to Staten Isand was established in 1755, and all the streets in 
the North Ward (that part of the city lying between William, Nassau and 
Wall streets and the Collect) were paved. On September 20 of this year Sir 
Charles Hardy succeeded Governor De Lancey. At this time the French 
and Indian War was raging in the province, and the commander of the 
American forces attempted to quarter a thousand of his troops on the 
citizens of the city, who rebelled, regarding the act as an infraction of their 
rights. They lodged the soldiers, however, in Chambers street, but refused 
to take care of the officers. Word was sent to the general about it, and he 
hastened to the city to force compliance with his order as to quartering the 
officers. He threatened to bring all the troops in North America to the city 



48 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

and billet them on the people. The citizens stood their ground, however, 
though the demand of the general was supported by the Governor. This 
was one of the chief grievances that culminated in the struggle for inde- 
pendence. 

Following is an extract from the manuscripts regarding the system pur- 
sued by the Mother Country, so-called, to oppress the people of New York: 
"One thousand stand of arms imported from England by the Corporation, at 
an expense of £3,000, and deposited in the City Hall; and the Corporation 
petitioned the Governor for a lottery, to raise money to pay off this excessive 
and alarming debt." An "armament was fitted out from New York for the 
French war in Canada, and batteaux built, near Dey street." April 2, 1756, 
"Council purchased fifty pounds of pistol powder, and fixed up the cartridge 
boxes in the City Hall." These all relate to the Canadian war. 

On May 5, 1756, "Ordered, That Mr. Lispenard and Mr. Van Ranst be 
a committee to remove the gallows from where it now stands to the place 
where the negroes were burnt, some five years ago, at the foot of the hill 
called Catiemut's Hill, near the fresh water" (Pearl and Centre street). 
What a grewsome undertaking! 

This year St. Andrew's Society was established, on November 19, by 
natives of Scotland and men of Scottish descent, for charitable purposes. 
The objects of this society were friendly intercourse between the natives of 
Scotland and their descendants, the relieving of deserving poor, the 
furnishing of implements and materials for domestic manufacture to the 
industrious poor, the giving of money, medicine, clothing and fuel to the 
needy. In some cases homes were provided for the destitute. While for 
a period of twenty years this society adhered strictly to the law regarding 
the holding of meetings and the dispensing of charity, in 1775 it suspended 
its meetings, but continued to distribute for benevolent purposes the capital 
accumulated during the Revolution. At the restoration of peace it renewed 
its vigor, and from 1784 until the present it has continued to sustain its 
original character. 

The reign of Sir Charles Hardy as Governor was short. While he was 
well thought of by the Colonists, the position palled on him, and his peti- 
tion to the Crown to restore him to his former command in the navy 
was granted in 1757. The control of affairs again fell to De Lancey. Mean- 
while the conquest of Canada occupied the attention of the citizens, and 
large bodies of militia went from New York to aid in the defence of the 
English forts. "The Corporation had barracks made for eight hundred men. 
It was built on the Commons, between the jail and Catiemut's Hill (in 
Chatham street). The sum of £3,500 was received from the Treasury of the 
Colony for the barracks and support of soldiers." 

Long Island Ferry, which was mentioned in a previous chapter, was 
leased in 1758 for £650 a year, and Bedlow's Island was purchased by the 
Corporation from Archibald Kennedy for £ 1,000 for the purpose of erecting 
a pesthouse on it. 

In 1758 the jail for the confinement of debtors was erected on the east 
side of the City Hall, nearly adjoining Chatham street, now Park Row. Cen- 
tre street had not been opened at the time, and City Hall Park extended 
to Chatham street. It was a small stone building, nearly square, three 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 49 

stories high, with a belfry rising from the centre. A chapel was fitted up 
on the first floor and prayers were read every Thursday. No settled allow- 
ance was made by the Corporation for the support of the prisoners, nor had 
they any bedding. The inmates were permitted to walk on the roof of the 
building at seasonable hours "for healthful purposes," and those who desired 
to reside outside the limits of the jail paid 50 cents, as well as finding proper 
security to satisfy the jailer, but only after judgment had been obtained. 
Those arrested for debt previous to the obtaining of a judgment were re- 
quired to find bail for their appearance. After the organization of the Hu- 
mane Society in 1787, each prisoner was given half a pound of meat, three 
pints of soup, two potatoes and an Indian cornmeal dumpling every twenty- 
four hours. The old Hall of Records was the site of the jail. 




CHAPTER X. 



(1759-1766.) 



Society for the Encouragement of Faithful Domestic Servants Organized — 

Development of Chatham Street — First Baptist Church — Law 

Regulating Price of Meat — Sandy Hook Lighthouse. 

The housekeepers of the early nineteenth century must have had an 
experience similar to those of the twentieth century in the employing of 
household help and the retaining of it, according to the record of the 
formation of a Society for the Encouragement of Faithful Domestic Ser- 
vants established nearly one hundred years ago, with headquarters in 
Chambers street. At that time the question of the autocracy of the upstairs 
girl and the downstairs girl, of the cook, the nurse and the maid and of all 
the rest of the nerve destroying, anger breeding household help no doubt 
had been thoroughly considered, resolving itself eventually into the forma- 
tion of a society for mutual protection and the settlement of the question in 
an Interesting way. Of course, a similar plan, if adopted to-day, would 
limit the field of the caricaturist and cause the writer of jokes on the mis- 
tress and maid question much worry to find a hospitable place for his 
stock of hoary and wanton puns, but what relief would come to the house- 
holder when the servant raven disappeared from the door, and the cheery 
"Yes, ma'am," "No, ma'am," took its place, and the cook welcomed the 
mistress to the kitchen and the butler removed the shoes of the master 
from their telltale place at the foot of the stairs, etc. Oh, happy day! 
Here is the narrative of the society's formation: 

A committee of women representative of New York's best families, 
finding it hard to retain servants, formed the association mentioned above, 
placing the fee for membership in it at $5. They chose as officers a presi- 
dent and eight managers, who were subscribers, and an agent, whose duty 
it was to keep a register of all persons applying for places as domestics oi 
servants of any description, and who could produce good written recom- 
mendations that they were entitled to have their names registered. As 
the primary object of the society was to offer liberal premiums to those 
domestics who conducted themselves well and remained longest in a family, 
the society adopted a graded list of awards, to be given annually to all 
nominated servants. Subscribers were the nominators for such premiums, 
and any of them who were found giving a false character to a servant 
were excluded from the society. Premiums were bestowed for one, two and 
three or more years of faithful service, and also a premium of 1 per cent, 
on all balances in the savings bank, the books to be exhibited to the agent. 

50 



CRADLli DAYS OF NEW YORK. 51 

"It is requested," says the document of organization, "that the certifcales 
of character be full and explicit as the servants deserve, as the yearlj- 
gratuity is a certain one to every nominated servant for perspective ser- 
vices, and on the servant bringing her certificate to the office, with a letter 
from her employer, stating her continuance in her place and her good con- 
duct, she is entitled to receive 

"A handsome octavo Bible, or in lieu thereof $2 

"In t\v6 years thereafter 3 

"In three years...' 5 

"In four years 7 

"In five years 10 

"Any subscriber who entices or inveigles away a servant from any 
other person, or who treats servants harshly or unjustly, shall be dealt with 
as the society directs, and under no consideration shall influence be per- 
mitted to swerve the officers from doing the duty which devolves on them 
through the society's order." 

The benefits of this institution were manifested in 1825, for among 
thirty thousand servants of all descriptions in the city only eight thousand 
were not enrolled on the society's books, and even among these peace 
reigned. 

On March 14, 1759, "Chatham street began to develop and a few houses 
were erected shortly after," and "several lots of ground were leased for 
twenty-one years, between the new jail and Captain Brown's house, near 
the palisadoes, where the windmill formerly stood, to commence on the 1st 
of May, at £ 3 10s. per annum." Some one is touring Europe, or sailing the 
seas on his yacht, or manipulating stocks, or doing the thing that millions 
of dollars permit him to do, from the rent of this land in 1909. 

After the war which secured to England the conquest of Canada the 
people of the colony, on the morning of July 30, 1760, met with a severe 
loss in the death of Lieutenant Governor De Lancey, who died suddenly 
in his library. "The popularity of the Lieutenant Governor had been so 
great that his remains were escorted by a large concourse of citizens from 
his house on the east side of the Bowery, a little above Grand street, to 
Trinity Church, where he was interred in the middle aisle, the funeral 
services being performed by the Rev. Henry Barclay." Cadwalader Colden, 
at this time seventy-three years of age, succeeded him, and, though he had 
been actively engaged in public affairs for many years and possessed po- 
litical talent of uncommon order, the old manuscripts say that "he wrecked 
his popularity by taking oaths which compelled him to sacrifice the rights 
of his countrymen upon the shrine of official duty." 

The first link in the chain of Baptist churches was made this year 
by building a house of worship in Gold street, near Fulton. It was of blue- 
stone and stood until 1840, when the stone of which it was composed was 
worked into the First Baptist Church, on the corner of Broome and Eliza- 
beth streets, to which the congregation removed. 

In 1761 "the steeple of Trinity Church was struck by lightning and 
consumed to the belfry," and in the same year General Robert Monckton, 



52 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

who was then commanding his majesty's forces on Staten Island, was com- 
missioned Governor. The records say he was not distasteful to the people, 
as on October 26, when he published his commission at the City Hall, he 
declared that "he had no instructions, and hoped never to have any." This 
sounded like rebellion, but the English Government had tired of contesting 
with the Colonists regarding representative rights, permanent revenue and 
many other aggressions, and conceded them the right to tax themselves, not 
even insisting on the permanent revenue scheme. The city at this time 
had a population of 14,000, Avaste land was being utilized, public buildings 
were springing up here and there, and commerce was fast showing its hand, 
though v/ith all the pervading calm the tempest of revolution was gathering. 

In 1762 "£102 were given by the Corporation to refugees from St. 
John's, Newfoundland," and "no rain fell from May till November, and this 
is recorded as the most remarkable drouth ever known in this country." 
Here is a scintillating record: 

"1763 — Complaints made by the citizens in a petition to the Cor- 
poration of the high prices of meat, etc., 'as considerably higher than other 
cities,' and in consequence a law was passed regulating the price of such 
things, which gave offence to the country people and to the butchers, as 
will be seen; for on the 23d of December 'John Carpenter, butcher, declared 
he would sell his beef for four pence a pound, in spite of all that the 
wiseheads could do,' or words to that effect, and in consequence his license 
was taken from him, he was turned out of the market, and also disfran- 
chised." 

"The following were the prices assessed by the Corporation for the 
most important articles in market to be sold for, viz., beef, 4i/^d per pound; 
pork, 5d per pound; hindquarter of veal, 5d per pound; forequarter, 4%d 
per pound; mutton, 4i^d per pound; butter, Is 3d per pound; milk, 6 cop- 
pers per quart." The weight of bread had been established in 1684, 
varying, of course, with the rise or fall of flour — "a white bread loaf, of 
thirteen ounces, was assized to be sold for five stivers of wampum, or one 
penny halfpenny." In 1761 "a loaf of bread one pound twelve ounces 
in weight sold for four coppers." 

The colonists began "to sit up and take notice" in 1763. Sandy 
Hook lighthouse was lighted for the first time. And, by the way, the 
purchase price of the entire isthmus a few years later was $20,000. Ferries 
were established between Paulus Hook (Jersey City) and Miesier's Dock 
(Cortlandt street), and between Staten Island and Bergen, and packet 
boats and stages made the journey between Philadelphia and New York in 
three days — "a considerable improvement in travelling arrangements." 
These boats ran from the Battery to Perth Amboy, where stages conveyed 
the freight and passengers to Burlington, N. J. At this point another boat 
was taken for Philadelphia. There were other routes, but this one 
seemed to be the most used. Mail went regularly twice a week between 
Philadelphia and New York. Methodism '^as first introduced in New 
York about this time by members of Wesley's Society from England and 
Ireland, who had previously settled in various parts of the country. In 
1766 "two local preachers began to preach in New York and one in Mary- 
land, and made some converts. Mr. Webb, a lieutenant in his majesty's 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. S3 

service, preached at New York and Philadelphia with great success." In 
1767 Philip Embury and others erected the first church in John street, 
near Nassau, and called it Wesley Chapel. It stood until 1817, when it was 
replaced by a larger structure "built in modern fashion, with the pews 
sloping from the rear of the house down to the pulpit, which is low; the 
house is lighted with gas during evening service." A third structure was 
built, which still stands. 

The first president of King's College resigned in 1763, and was suc- 
ceeded by Dr. Cooper. It was his pleasure to receive a bequest of 1,200 
volumes, made by Dr. Bristow, of England, as the foundation of a library 
for the college, though Joseph Murray, a member of the colony, in 1757 had 
bequeathed a collection to it. 

1764 — "Trial of Porsey and Cunningham, in a case of assault and 
battery; chiefly remarkable as it presents a case, till then unprecedented, of 
setting aside the verdict of a jury without granting a new trial." 

St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway and Vesey street, was erected in 176.5. 
Here is a comment made by a New York paper in 1794 as to its spire, 
which was erected then: "The spire of this church is one of the noblest 
ornaments of the city, and is, with the entire building, justly esteemed 
one of the best specimens of architecture." It seems to have been growing 
smaller of late, because of the effect of the high buildings which surround 
it. Superstitious people in the early nineteenth century said that the 
marble figure of St. Paul, above the portico, when it heard the clock strike 
12 at midnight of St. Paul's Day "came down and walked the streets." 

"Cliff street and Park Place were opened and regulated in 1766, and 
for the better prevention of fires an ordinance was passed directing that all 
the roofs in the city should be covered with slate or tiles." Tiles alone 
were used for some years after. 



CHAPTER XI. 



(1759-1768.) 



Old State Prison — First Colonial Congress — Stamp Duties — First Lutheran 
Church — The Brick Church — Liberty Pole Erected — Disfran- 
chisement of the Province — Scotch Presbyterian Church. 

Many transformations have taken place in buildings which over one 
hundred years ago occupied prominent places in old New York. One worthy 
of mention was the old State prison. This institution was erected in 1796, 
on Amos street (now West Tenth street), and, while its outside walls still 
remain, reminiscent of the days of turmoil and trouble in the colony, Im- 
provements have served to give it a modern appearance. The firm of 
brewers which until lately occupied this ancient structure changed its 
interior, but the inquisitive visitor may here and there be reminded of its 
former use. When it was erected the prison yard extended to the river, and 
all around it were fields, east and west, north and south. The locality now 
is recognizable to only a few old people, residents of Greenwich Village, 
and one of these pointed out to the writer the position of a sandy beach, 
where in the old days the effect of the summer heat was lessened by a plunge 
into the waters of the North River. No executions took place in this 
prison. In Dutch Colonial days, before Greenwich prison was built, outside 
the Battery on the beach was the place selected for rewarding the unforgiv- 
able evildoer, and under the English the present City Hall Park. Then 
the scene changed to Houston and Wooster streets, and afterward to Wash- 
ington Square, where the criminals of the Amos street prison were executed 
and buried under the gallows, as was the case in each place mentioned. A 
writer of these days says: "It is a curious fact that most of our smaller 
parks were not reserved as pleasure places, but for public use in the inter- 
ment of paupers." City Hall Park was at one time a Potter's field, and a 
negro burial ground adjoined it, the limit of which on the north was the 
present Stewart Building, at Broadway and Chambers street. Madison 
Square was also a resting place for the unnamed dead, as was Washington 
Square. In it in 1819 and 1822 yellow fever patients were buried. Who 
thinks of that now, or that the House of Refuge occupied a site then known 
as the junction of the Bloomingdale and Boston roads? This spot is now the 
site of the Worth monument. 

A story is told of an inmate of Greenwich prison who had been 
sentenced to die on the gallows, but at the last moment, through the 
influence of the Society of Friends, had his sentence commuted to life 
imprisonment, and was placed in charge of the shoe shop in the prison. 

54 



CRADLE DAYS OF XEW YORK. 55 

The Quakers worked for his release, and, having secured it, placed him in 
a shoe shop of his own. His business flourished, and he was prominently 
identified with the progress of the times. He had an itching palm, however, 
and after a time he forged the names of all his business friends, eloped with 
the daughter of one of his benefactors and disappeared from the earth, 
apparently. "Murder will out." A few years after the forger returned 
to the city and established himself under an assumed name in the making 
of shoes, forgetting, however, to maintain complacency, and thinking that 
no one would recognize him. In a passion at what he considered the care- 
lessness of one of his workmen regarding the time some work should have 
been delivered, he told the man he should not have promised it, as it 
caused disappointment. "Master," said the workman, "you have disap- 
pointed me worse than that." "How, you rascal?" "When I waited a 
whole hour in the rain to see you hanged." 

When Cadwallader Golden assumed authority over New York for the 
second time as Governor in 1760, succeeding Governor Monckton, who 
desired pleasanter pursuits, the contest between Great Britain and her 
colonies, which culminated in the Revolution, was in embryo. While 
the colony was poor and struggling Great Britain let it alone, but when, 
through indomitable perseverance and courage, the Dutch settlement had 
resolved itself into a flourishing province, the usual course at that time 
was pursued to wtest it from the hands of its builders. To do this it 
was necessary to incense the people, and rigorous restrictions were imposed 
for the purpose. Under cover of regulating the trade of the colonies. Great 
Britain levied heavy duties upon imports, and at the same time suppressed 
all attempts at home manufacture. Nor were the colonists allowed to 
trade with foreign countries or to send to England any merchandise unless 
it was carried by English vessels. It was a violation of law to manufacture 
an axe or a hammer, though the country was full of iron, and in order to 
limit the manufacture of beaver hats two apprentices only were allowed 
to each hatter, and hats could not be sold by one colony to another. No 
cloth could be manufactured except for private use, or exported from one 
town to another. The raw material must be sent to England for manu- 
facture, and then come back as imported cloth, with heavy duty, of course. 
Although the colony had been taxed heavily for the carrying on of the 
French and Indian wars, and had been left burdened with a heavy debt, 
the British Ministry was insatiable in its desire and proposed the pas- 
sage of a law to raise a permanent revenue from the colonies by direct 
taxation — taxing various articles of foreign produce and establishing stamp 
duties. Every schoolboy knows how this action resulted; how in 1765 the 
Stamp Act was flnally passed; how the news of its passage reached New 
York early in April of that year; how copies of the act were hawked 
about the streets with a death's head affixed to each, and under it the 
inscription, "The Folly of England and the Ruin of America"; how the 
citizens resolved not to use the stamped papers, etc. One James McEvers 
was the official stamp distributer for New York, and "much distrusted by 
the people, who resolved that this distribution never should take place." 

On October 7, 1765, a congress of delegates — the first Colonial Con- 
gress — from the several provinces met in New York in the City Hall, in 



56 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Wall street, to consult in respect to a proposed confederation. Previous to 
the meeting a committee waited on Lieutenant Governor Golden, to solicit 
his aid and sympathy. His answer was: "Your congress is unconstitu- 
tional, unprecedented and unlawful, and I shall give you no countenance." 
He ordered the fortifications strengthened and proper provision made for 
the reception of the stamps. The record: "Great excitement existed in 
the city, and a civil war was feared. McEvers, the stamp distributer, had 
disappeared, fearing the fury of the populace. No official dared touch the 
paper when Captain Davis delivered it. The Corporation induced the Gov- 
ernor and commander in chief to deposit it in the City Hall for safekeeping, 
and on November 1 the Governor and the devil holding the Stamp Act were 
burned in e^sY, after being paraded through the streets." 

"Archibald Kennedy, William McAdam and Cornelius Van Voorste 
petitioned for an exclusive ferry to the Jersey shore." Another record: 
"The library room in the City Hall repaired, and Mr. Thomas Jackson 
appointed librarian, and directed to let the books out for hire as follows, 
viz.: Folios, 2s. a week; quartos. Is.; octavos, 6d. His salary to be £4 per 
annum, and his attendance to deliver and receive books to be on Mondays 
and Thursdays, from half-past 11 till 1 o'clock." This record bespeaks a 
restful community, which at this time did not exist. Robinson street (now 
Park Place) was laid out and regulated in 1765. 

^ With the arrival of the second consignment of stamps came the newly 
appointed Governor, Sir Henry Moore, "who won the affections of the 
people by declaring he would have nothing to do with the obijoxious papers." 
Peter De Lancey, Jr., had in the mean time taken the place of the recreant 
stamp distributer, McEvers, but, on being warned by the people that it 
would be better for him to resign, did so, saying he was ignorant of the 
objections of the people, and would publish a disclaimer in the papers of the 
day, which appeared with a formal renunciation exacted from McEvers. 
Governor Moore "conciliated his subjects by ordering the discontinuance 
of the erection of the fortifications begun by Colden at the fort, and by 
declaring that he would not meddle with the enforcement of the Stamp 
Act, which was repealed on February 20, 1766." 

"Grant of ground to the Dutch Church of twenty-eight lots for a burial 
place, viz.: ten lots bounded north on Queen street (part of Pearl street), 
eight lots east and south on Thomas street, and ten lots west on George 
street (Spruce street), some larger and some smaller." The Presbyterian 
Church, through John Rogers and Joseph Treat, ministers, and John Morrin 
Scott, Peter R. Livingston and others, as trustees, this year "petitioned in 
a long and eloquent appeal for the angular lot, lately called the Vineyard, 
stating the great increase of that persuasion; and the land asked for was 
unanimously granted to them, at a rent of i40 per annum, as follows, viz.: 
152 feet on the southwest, 214 on northwest, 62 on northeast and 200 on 
the south side; and the present Brick Church in Beekman street, erected 
thereon in 1767." 

The same year the Powles Hook Ferry was let at £40 a year, and the 
"landing established at the lower end of Thomas street, dr Thames street, 
at Roosevelt's Pier." The ferry over the East River "brought £660." 

On October 14 Whitehead Hicks, the last Mayor appointed by the 



CRADLE DAYS OP NEW YORK. 57 

Colonial government, assumed office. He was regularly appointed until 1776. 

The Liberty Pole of historic import was erected on June 4, 1766, George 
Ill's birthday, on the Commons, as the crowning event of a day of celebra- 
tions, at which Governor Moore, hoping to strengthen the loyalty of the 
citizens, "politically encouraged them in their rejoicings." It, or rather 
the ground on which it was erected, served as the rallying point for many a 
sharp contest during the succeeding years, and stood "for a principle as 
dear to the New Yorkers as that of personal taxation.' The first pole was 
cut down by the 28th British Regiment on the succeeding August 10, was 
again set up, and again cut down on the night of September 23. A third was 
erected on September 25, and by order of Governor Moore was permitted to 
stand. On March 18, 1767, it was again leveled to the ground, but the next 
day a more substantial one, "well secured with iron bands," was erected, 
and, though repeated assaults were made on it by the British soldiers, it 
continued to stand, a trophy of the victory of the people. 

In 1767 a Lutheran Church was built in the swamp, corner of William 
and Frankfort streets. It was of stone, and the service was performed in the 
German language. 

Another storm broke over the city — the immediate cause of the Ameri- 
can Revolution. With the news of the disfranchisement of the province 
came the enactment of a law by the Ministry under William Pitt — the im- 
position of the duties on tea, glass, paper, painter's colors and lead "which 
should be henceforth imported into the colonies." The rest is history. 

In 1768 the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Cedar street was built. 
"The church was lighted with gas during evening service." 

The Governor, "who was really of a conciliatory disposition, and who 
endeavored in vain to restrain the demonstrations of the people and to 
bring them back to a sense of their loyalty," died suddenly on September 11, 
1769, when Cadwallader Golden again assumed authority. 



CHAPTER XII. 



(1768-1770.) 



Captain Kidd— New York Hospital Founded— Fourth, or North, Church- 
Marine Society Incorporated— Statue of George III 
Ordered Erected— Statue of Pitt. 

The press teems with tales of treasure trove. Before the disasters 
attending a hunt for Montezuma's wealth on Cocos Island are forgotten 
a treasure ship is discovered on the Florida coast. Then a citizen of 
New Rochelle returns from an unsuccessful hunt of two years among the 
South Sea islands for $50,000,000 supposed to have been hidden by pirates. 
Now comes the news that a number of New York business men are organiz- 
ing another expedition to hunt for the hidden hoards of our own Captain 
Kidd They are supplied with maps, too, and have apparently authentic 
data on which to proceed. Some time in the early TO's there arrived here 
from San Francisco an old man whose name may not be mentioned here He 
had made a fortune in mining, and invested extensively in real estate m 
Madison and Lexington avenues and Thirty-fifth street. He gave liberally 
to charitable and religious institutions. One of his benefactions was a 
church in that neighborhood, which he built and presented to the congrega- 
tion He had numbered among his friends John Jacob Astor and President 
Zachary Taylor A letter written to him by the latter, thanking him for 
efforts in securing Taylor's election to the Presidency, has been frequently 
read in some of the public schools of this city. The old man finally suffered 
business reverses, eventually becoming so old and poor that his friends had 
him admitted to a home for aged men. To recompense one of these friends 
he gave him a paper which purported to be a map of the place where Kidd's 
treasure was buried. This map was given by Kidd's colored cook to Thomas 
Clark, of New Haven. When Clark died he gave the map to a daughter, 
aged fifteen. She married and moved to Vermont in 1799. Dying in 1840, 
she gave the map to her son, who was the Californian mentioned above. A 
search was made for the treasure, which proved unsuccessful, but the topo- 
graphical description was found to be accurate, so a second and more 
thorough search may be made. 

There is scarcely a spot on the coast between Cape Cod and Cape May. 
however, which does not possess data apparently as authentic as that given 
above, proving that Kidd's hoard is hidden somewhere near, and the ac- 
counts of Captain Kidd vary so widely that an authentic history of him is 

of value. 

Most people think Captain Kidd was a pirate, that he was tried on that 

58 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 59 

charge, found guilty and was hanged. So he was — tried and hanged — but 
his guilt was not proved, according to modern historians who have delved 
for the information in the old manuscripts of this country and England. 
Plainly, Kidd was sacrificed that the reputation of those "higher up" should 
remain outwardly unsullied. England was disturbed in 16 95 because of the 
increase of piracy. The King, William III, supposing the pirates were sup- 
ported by persons in the colonies, and especially in New York, selected the 
Governor of New York and Massachusetts, the Earl of Bellamont, to operate 
against them. Bellamont, according to the records, "was very grasping." 
The English Government in 1695 was deeply involved in war with France, 
and could not afford the money to equip an expedition to suppress piracy, so 
that under her warrant Bellamont and one Robert Livingston, of New 
York, planned to send out a private expedition, with Kidd, who at the time 
owned a house and lot in what is now Hanover Square, in command. 

Kidd had served with distinction in the war against the French, "was 
of good repute and an experienced Captain." On October 10, 1695, the King 
having sanctioned the plan, Bellamont entered into an agreement with Kidd 
to procure from the King and the Admiralty Commissioners the proper au- 
thority for him to fight the pirates, Bellamont to furnish four-fifths of the 
cost of equipping the expedition, the other fifth to be furnished by Kidd and 
Livingston. 

Kidd agreed to enlist the men he required on the understanding that 
the prizes vv^ere to be their compensation. Many officers of the crown, mem- 
bers of the Whig party, were Bellamont's contributors. The commissions 
granted to Kidd bear the dates December 10, 1695, and January 26, 1695- 
'96. The first gave him power to act against the French, and the second to 
apprehend and seize all pirates. When he sailed from Plymouth, England, 
for New York in 1696 his crew was composed of the most desperate, un- 
stable men. Indeed, Governor Fletcher, writing in October, 1696, to the 
Lords of Trade in England, said: "One Captain Kidd lately arrived here, 
and produced a commission under the Great Seal of England for suppressing 
piracy. . . . Many flocked to him from all parts, men of desperate fortunes 
and necessitous. . . . 'Twill not be in Kidd's power to govern such a 
hord of men under no pay." To keep the record of Kidd's position straight, 
it may be said that part of the first crew shipped by him in Plymouth Har- 
bor was composed of able seamen who had families in England, but who 
were impressed into the King's service before he left for New York, so that, 
with his expedition half equipped with unstable and desperate men, he 
sailed for this country, hoping on his arrival to secure full complement, 
which he did, but the men were the offscouring of the colonies, allured by 
(he desire for gold principally. 

Kidd sailed for the Strait of Madagascar shortly after arriving at New 
York, and from that time, in July, 1696, until September of the year fol- 
lowing his acts of piracy consisted in the boarding of small Arabian 
coasters "and taking therefrom coffee, sugar, pepper and myrrh." 

Kidd's agreement with Bellamont was to take his prizes to Boston for 
condemnation, without touching at any other port, and when he captured, 
on November 27, 1697, a Moorish ship, which he was justified in doing 
under his commission, as he claimed she was sailing under French papers. 



6o CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

his crew refused to sail to Boston, and what articles of value were taken 
were sold along the coast. When the Quedagh was captured, in January, 
1698, his crew again refused to go to Boston. This vessel was also sailing 
under French papers, and had a valuable cargo, part of which was taken 
by the crew and sold in various places on the coast of India. The money 
which they received they divided among themselves, after which they 
abandoned the expedition, "to the number of one hundred," taking their 
gains with them. 

While the above was taking place Kidd's distinguished backers were 
in trouble in England, as the result of reports of his "dastardly work," 
which were used by the anti-government party to force an issue. Seeing 
that the political walls were about to fall on them, his supporters in the 
scheme to enrich themselves forced the Government, on December 16, 1698, 
to issue a proclamation offering pardon to those guilty of piracy who 
should surrender themselves before commissioners to be named for the 
purpose, but excluding Captain Kidd from such pardon. Kidd, no doubt, 
heard of the proclamation, for early in 1699 he arrived at New York on a 
small coasting schooner, having left the captured Quedagh somewhere in 
the West Indies, under a small guard, and opened communication with 
Lord Bellamont in Boston. In this he offered to turn over the Quedagh 
and whatever remained of her cargo, and such money as was in his hands 
from the sale mentioned previously if a pardon and indemnity against loss 
on his bond were given to him. To prove the legitimacy of his work as 
agent for Bellamont he inclosed in his communication the French papers 
found in the two ships taken by him. 

The Whig administration was in desperate straits regarding Kidd. 
His mutinous crew, one of whom Kidd in a passion had killed, were scat- 
tered over the globe, with no hope in the minds of the Government of 
being able to punish them, while the man they were after, Kidd himself, 
might be the possessor of information which, if made public, would throw 
opprobrium on themselves and their speculative enterprise. Bellamont at 
first agreed that Kidd's actions were right, that the enterprise was legiti- 
mate, but political animosities ran high, and he was compelled to order 
his arrest and send him to England, where he remained in prison for two 
years. According to the Whig party, Kidd was guilty before he was placed 
on trial — not of piracy, but of the murder of William Moore — on May 8, 
1701. No counsel was allowed him, and even the judges shrank from the 
performance of their duty of trying the case. Everything was admitted as 
testimony by them whether relevant or not, and Kidd was prohibited from 
speaking in his own behalf. He was found guilty, and on May 20, 1701, 
was hanged at Execution Dock, Wapping. There is positive evidence, 
according to the best authorities, that the members of Kidd's crew who 
were tried and condemned with him were never executed. 

Once more to our legitimate chronology: The New York Hospital 
was founded in 1769 by private subscription, and incorporated by charter 
from Governor Dunmore on July 13, 1776. This charter was confirmed by 
an act of the Legislature dated March 9, 1810. In 1775 the hospital was 
burned down by accident, and before another could be completed the war 
broke out, during which the British converted the unfinished apartment 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 6l 

into barracks. In 1791 it was reopened as a tiospital for the sick and dis- 
abled, and afterward opened to infirm and friendless seamen. As the 
demands on the hospital increased the private subscriptions were found to 
be inadequate to pay the expenses. The Legislature was induced at vari- 
ous periods to confer grants upon it, and these were increased from time to 
time until March 14, 1806, when an act was passed authorizing the payment 
of $12,500 a year out of the duties on public auctions till the year 1857. 

The hospital stood in the center of a plot of ground bounded by Broad- 
way, Church street, Anthony street and Duane street. Fronting and 
sloping toward Broadway was an extensive lawn, with many venerable 
elms. From the cupola surmounting its three stories, says the record, "an 
extensive panoramic view of the entire city and of the harbor and country 
beyond to a great distance may be had. It is one of the most healthy places 
in the city, is quite distant from the limits of the populous parts, and, 
though there are a number of lofty houses in its neighborhood, the elevation 
of the building secures to the sick all the advantages of a free circulation." 
This was the beginning of the present hospital system. 

The Fourth, or North, Church was built in William street, between 
Fulton and Ann, this year. "It was of stone, with a handsome and lofty 
spire, about two hundred feet in height, in which is a gallery that com- 
mands one of the finest views in the city." How much of the city could be 
seen from this point now? 

In the year 1770, on April 12, the Marine Society was incorporated, 
and its funds limited to £3,000 a year. Its immediate objects were the im- 
provement of maritime knowledge and the relief of indigent masters of 
vessels, their widows and orphans. It is a noted society in New York to-day. 

"February 2. — The citizens, animated with the spirit of liberty, noti- 
fied the Common Council that they were determined to erect a liberty pole 
opposite St. Paul's Church, in Chatham street, but the corporation refused 
the spot, and it was erected on private ground near." The "cost of lamps, 
lighting the city, etc., was £760 a year in 1770," as per report of April 10. 

On May 17 of this year "a statue of his majesty King George III, 
ordered to be erected in the bowling green, and a statue of William Pitt, 
Earl of Chatham, erected in Wall street, at the intersection of William 
street." The history of the statue first mentioned is familiar to every 
schoolboy, but that of the second is not so well known. This statue was 
erected by the people of New York on the steps of what was then known 
as the Royal Exchange, in gratitude for the services of William Pitt. 

When the statue of King George was destroyed by the citizens, the 
British soldiers, in revenge, pulled the Pitt statue down and broke off the 
head and one arm. It lay for a quarter of a century among the rubbish in 
the yard of the corporation, when it was discovered by the owner of a noted 
resort on the corner of West Broadway and Franklin street, known as 
Riley's Fifth Ward Museum Hotel. He erected it, sans head, sans arm, out- 
side of his place, and surrounded it with an iron railing. There the relic 
of the past stood until Riley's death, when the New York Historical Society 
secured it, and now has it in its collection. 

"The Council, who for some time past opened their sittings to the 
public, now closed them again on the citizens." 



CHAPTER Xm. 



(1769-1776.) 



Landmarks of Old New York — Circular to the Betrayed Inhabitants of the 
City and Colony of New York— Battle of Golden Hill- 
First Record of a Boycott. 

As an introduction to this chapter's part of the chronology here are 
twenty-six interesting landmarks of old New York for the guidance of 
the home student and the stranger visitor: 

(1) The site of Fort Amsterdam — where the new Custom House now 
stands on Bowling Green. (2) The site of the first habitations of white 
men on the island, erected by Adrian Block — No. 41 Broadway. (3) Stuy- 
vesant's "White Hall" — No. 73 Pearl street. (4) Stuyvesant's country resi- 
dence — Fourteenth street to Sixteenth street, Fourth avenue to the East 
River. (5) Stuyvesant's burial place — St. Mark's Churchyard, Stuyvesant 
street and Second avenue. (6) Stuyvesant's pear tree — Formerly corner 
of Thirteenth street and Third avenue. (7) First church of the Huguenots, 
erected in 1688 — Where the Produce Exchange stands. (8) The first house 
of worship of the Dutch, erected in 1693 — Exchange Place. (The baptismal 
bowl made for this congregation in Holland is in the Collegiate Church, at 
Fifth avenue and Twenty-ninth street.) (9) Where Charlotte Temple 
ended her life — On the north side of Pell street, west of the Bowery, in one 
of two houses painted yellow. (10) William Bradford's (the first printer) 
shop — No. 51 Pearl street. (11) Second City Hall — On the site of the 
Sub-Treasury. (12) Slave market — Foot of Wall street. (13) The fash- 
ionable promenade of the old days — The Mall, in the neighborhood of 
Trinity Church. (14) The shopping center of the city in 1765 — Hanover 
Square. (15) Where New York's first newspaper was issued — The site of 
the Cotton Exchange. (16) The Kennedy House, of historic association — 
No. 1 Broadway. (17) Where the non-importation agreement in opposition 
to the Stamp Act was signed in 1765 — No. 115 Broadway. (18) Golden 
Hill, where the first blood in the War of the Revolution was shed — John 
street, near William. (19) Where the first Liberty Pole was erected to 
commemorate the repeal of the Stamp Act — The site of the Postoffice Build- 
ing. (20) Where Marinus Willett captured the arms of the British sol- 
diers — Broad and Beaver streets. (21) Where the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was read and published — Near the west wing of the present City 
Hall. (22) The site of the Middle Dutch Church, dedicated in 1729 — 
Mutual Life Building, Nassau, Cedar and Liberty streets. (23) Where 
General Washington landed, on his way to Cambridge to command the 

62 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 63 

American Army- — West street, near Laight. (24) Points fortified against 
attacks by the British — On the East River, at Forty-fourth street. Fifty- 
fourth street, Seventy-fourth street, Eighty-fifth street, Eighty-ninth 
street, Mount Morris Park, back of Trinity Church, Jones's Hill, near 
Broome street; Bunker Hill, Grand and Mulberry streets. (25) Where 
Washington rallied his men against the attack of Clinton and Donop — Park 
avenue and Fortieth street. (26) Where Generals Washington and Putnam 
met during the movement of the American Army the day before the battle 
of Harlem, September 16, 1776 — West side of Broadway, between Forty- 
third and Forty-fourth streets. 

Events were shaping themselves for the final outbreak in 1769, as 
will be seen by the following extracts from a circular headed "To the 
Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York," and signed "A 
Son of Liberty," in possession of the New York Historical Society: 
"My Dear Fellow-Citizens and Countrymen: 

"In a Day when the Minions of Tyranny and Despotism in the Mother 
Country, and the Colonies, are indefatigable in laying every Snare that 
their malevolent and corrupt Hearts can suggest, to enslave a free people; 
when this unfortunate Country has been striving under many Disadvan- 
tages for three Years past, to preserve their Freedom; . . . when the 
Merchants of this City and the Capital towns on the Continent, have nobly 
and cheerfully sacrificed their private Interests to the publick Good, rather 
than to promote the Designs of the Enemies of our happy Constitution; it 
might justly be expected, that in this day of Constitutional Light, the Rep- 
resentatives of this Colony, would not be so hardy, nor so lost to all sense of 
Duty to their Constituents . . . as to betray the Trust committed to 
them [in passing the vote to give the troops £1,000 out of the Treasury and 
£1,000 out of the money to be put out on loan, and which the colony would 
be obliged to make good]. And that they have betrayed the Liberties of 
the People. , . . And what makes the Assembly's granting this Money 
the more grievous, is, that it goes to the Support of the Troops kept here, 
not to protect, but to enslave us. ... Is this a State to be rested in 
when our all is at Stake? No, my Countrymen, Rouse! imitate the noble 
Example of the Friends of Liberty in England, who rather than be en- 
slaved contend for their right with the K- — g. Lords and Commons. And 
will you suffer your Liberties to be torn from you by your own Repre- 
sentatives? Tell it not in Boston; publish it not in the Streets of Charles- 
ton! . . . Assemble in the Fields on Monday next, where your sense 
ought to be taken on this important Point." 

After the meeting of the following day, which disapproved the action 
of the Assembly, another handbill, signed "Legion," appeared, which 
"caused the Assembly much annoyance, was declared libelous, and a reward 
of £150 was offered for the discovery of the writer." Through information 
given by James Parker, a printer, in whose oflfice the printing was done, 
and who was threatened with the loss of his place as Secretary of the Post- 
ofiice if he did not give the name of the writer, Alexander Macdougal was 
arrested and imprisoned. New York honors him by naming a street for 
him. and the historian names him as the first martyr to the cause of liberty. 



64 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Here is an extract from a letter sent to London from New York on January 
22, 1770, which tells of the troublous times in the city: 

"We are all in Confusion in this City; the Soldiers have cut and 
blowed up Liberty Pole, and have caused much Trouble between the Inhab- 
itants. On Friday last between Burling Slip and the Fly Market, was an 
Engagement between the Inhabitants and the Soldiers, when much Blood 
was spilt. One Sailor got run through the Body, who since Died. One 
man got his Skull cut in the most Cruel Manner. On Saturday the Hall 
Bell rang for an Alarm, when was another Battle between the Inhabitants 
and Soldiers; but the Soldiers met with Rubbers, the Chiefest part being 
Sailors and Clubs to revenge the Death of their Brother, which they did 
with Courage and made them all run to their Barracks. What will be the 
end of this God knows!" 

The trouble referred to in this letter culminated in the two days' battle 
of Golden Hill, which has been glorified and perpetuated in history. 

The Liberty Boys were not to be balked by the action of Mayor Hicks 
and the Common Council on January 30, 1770, in refusing them a site 
on which to erect a fifth Liberty Pole; nor were they at a loss to find a 
house in which to meet when the owner of the property which they had 
previously used as a headquarters was won over to the opposition. To meet 
the first emergency, they purchased a piece of ground near where the 
fourth pole stood, and erected thereon what was destined to be the last 
rallying point previous to the Revolution. To meet the second emergency 
they purchased a house on what is now the corner of Broadway and Ann 
street, and christened it Hampden Hall. They consecrated it to the cause 
of liberty, and on March 19, 1770, celebrated the anniversary of the 
colony's triumph over the exactions of the mother country. 

Lord Dunmore superseded Colden as Governor on October 25, 1770. 
His instructions from the home government to the colonists, or rather their 
representatives, were similar to those of his predecessors— "to continue in 
welldoing and not to forget to make due appropriations for the troops quar- 
tered among them." During his reign the case of Macdougal was tried, 
George Clinton, future Governor of New York and Vice-President of the 
United States, defending him. Later he was released through the influence 
of friends. 

On July 8, 1771, William Tryon was appointed Governor, Lord Dun- 
more having been transferred to Virginia. This new Governor was voted 
an income of i2,000 by the complacent Assembly, but refused it, saying he 
was forbidden to receive any gifts from the Assembly — a new scheme by 
the home government for securing the submission of the colonies, as the 
salary of the Governor was to be paid from his majesty's treasury, and the 
treasury to be supplied from the colonial taxes. 

For the next two years — 1772 and 1773 — complete stagnation pre- 
vailed in New York. Few records of public improvements are to be found, 
commerce was only partially resumed, and the use of tea by the inhabitants 
was obsolete. The people thought only of resistance and awaited the day 
of deliverance from oppression. Only one street — Warren — was laid out 
and regulated in 1771, and an "iron railing made round the Bowling Green 
for £800."- Murray street was regulated the following year. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 65 

Much has bfeen written of the Boston Tea Party. New York also had a 
Tea Party in 1773. In order to entrap the colonists and unguardedly gain 
their assent to the principle of Parliamentary taxation, the home Ministry 
passed a law permitting the East India Company to export tea to the 
colonies free of the duty which before had been paid in England, but re- 
taining the duty which was paid in America. This, of course, reduced the 
price of tea to the colonists. The bill was declared obnoxious, and meas- 
ures were decided on to prevent the landing of the large shipments ordered 
to America. England was alarmed, especially as her Tea Commissions in 
New York had resigned their commissions. Strong resolutions were passed 
on November 27, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty condemnatory of the Revenue 
Act relating to tea, and pledging fealty to one another in the maintaining 
of a strict quarantine against its introduction in the colony: "Resolved, 
That, whether the duties imposed by this act be paid in Great Britain or 
in America, our liberties are equally affected." 

Here is the first record of a boycott: 

"Resolved, That whoever shall transgress any of these resolutions, we 
will not deal with or employ, or have any connection with him." 

Such was the spirit of the colonists. The date of arrival of the vessel 
bearing the tea was uncertain, but the patriots did not relax their vigilance, 
now and then, through their committees of correspondence, receiving word 
of her being delayed by contrary winds. During the excitement Governor 
Tryon sailed for England, and again the Government was in the hands of 
Colden. 

On April 22, 1774, the ship London, commanded by Captain Chambers, 
a New Yorker, appeared off Sandy Hook, and was boarded by members of 
the Vigilance Committee. Thej"^ were assured that no tea was on board, 
and no mention of it was found on the ship's manifest. The vessel was 
allowed to go to her dock, "where there was a scene of intense excitement." 
Another visit to the vessel was made by the whole committee, and, though 
the captain declared that no packages of tea were aboard, the committee 
decided on a thorough search, with the result that eighteen chests were 
discovered, which they confiscated. Taking the captain and the owners 
with them to the Coffee House, on the corner of Pearl and Wall streets, 
the committee called a meeting and decided to throw the tea Into the 
river, which they did "at 8 in the evening." "The next day the city was 
in festal attire. Bells were rung, flags were hoisted and bands played 
'God Save the King.' " Captain Chambers was escorted three leagues out- 
side of Sandy Hook and permitted to proceed. And this was New York's 
Tea Party four months after the Boston episode. 

The attempted punishment of the people for disobedience by King 
George cemented the bond of brotherhood, and on the evening of July 
6 the "great meeting in the fields" took place on the Commons — Alexander 
Hamilton making his maiden speech at it — to ratify the action of the 
famous Committee of Fifty-one, and to elect deputies to the second Colonial 
Congress at Philadelphia. While the Committee of Fifty-one disavowed 
the proceedings of the "meeting in the fields" the following day, eleven 
of the members, Sons of Liberty, "seceded and issued an address to the 
p«<>I>le." ' Palls were opened under the direction of the ]\Tayor and alder- 



GS CRADLE DAYS OF NEM' YORK. 

men for the election of delegates, all ■who v/ere taxpayers being allowed to 
vote. The representatives elected early in September assembled with those 
from the other colonies in Philadelphia. What they did the historians 
have noted. 

"Feb. 22. Fire in the fort. Governor Tryon lost his papers, furniture, 
&c., and the corporation addressed him a letter of condolence; he soon after 
went to England." About this time the names of the Common Council 
began to be entered on the minutes when voting on important questions, 
pro and con. 

"April 22. Christopher Colles proposed to erect a reservoir, and to 
convey water through the several streets. Read and referred." On this 
date "the street leading from St. Paul's Church toward fresh water was 
named Chatham street." 

The year 1775 saw constant excitement and restlessness in the colony. 
On March 5 "a battle took place in the city between the whigs and tories; 
the latter defeated," and on April 3 the Assembly adjourned, never to 
meet again. According to a resolution passed at the Philadelphia session, 
each colony was to organize companies of militia, and New York formed a 
corps called the Hearts of Oak. By orders of the Committee of Safety they 
were to remove the cannons from the Battery, and while doing so the 
seventy-four gun ship Asia, which was anchored ofE the fort, with her 
guns trained on the town, sent a broadside into them, as answer to a shot 
unthinkingly fired by one of the party, and killed a young militiaman. 

On April 24, 1775, a travel-stained horseman rode furiously into the 
city, and spread the news of the battle that changed the aspect of the 
Western world — the battle of LfCxington. It required but little time for 
the Sons of Liberty on that peaceful Sunday to take possession of the City 
Hall, distribute the arms stored therein and in the arsenal among the 
citizens and form a voluntary corps "under the command of Samuel 
Broome." "They demanded and obtained the key to the Custom House, 
closed the building and laid an embargo upon the vessels in port destined 
for the eastern colonies." A provisional government for the city was 
formed on May 5 at a meeting held in the Coffee House, "and the people 
pledged themselves to obey its orders until different arrangements should 
be made by the Continental Congress." 

All was not plain sailing after the appointment of the Committee of 
One Hundred at the meeting In the Coffee House. Some of the committee 
were inclined to the Royalist side and created doubt in the minds of the 
patriots. Excitement ran high, however, and in a short time those who 
had been considered doubtful acquiesced in the action of their colleagues. 
"Everything wore a martial appearance in the city. The stores and work- 
shops were closed and armed citizens paraded the streets. Precautions were 
taken, however, to put arms in a serviceable condition and to survey for 
fortifications." Curiously enough, no opposition was made to the landing 
of British troops, the Continental Congress granting permission, but ob- 
jecting strenuously to the erection of fortifications. It was on June 6, 1775, 
that the Marinus Wlllett episode occurred, the designation of the spot 
being given In the Introduction to this chapter. 

"June 24. Governor Tryon arrived in New York," and the next day 



CRADLE DAYS Oh NEW YORK. 67 

"Washington entered New York on his way from Mount Vernon to Cam- 
bridge. While the Provincial Congress received him with a cautious ad- 
dress, they still clung to the shadow of loyalty, constantly protesting that 
they desired nothing more than to secure to themselves the rights of true 
born British subjects." 

The change in the disposition of the citizens aroused Governor Tryou, 
"who, while treated with respect, found them in a state of open rebellion, 
with only the semblance of loyalty and disposed to yield more obedience to 
the Provincial Congress than to him." 

"Aug. 22. The Asia, British man-of-war, fired upon the city in the 
night, and threw the inhabitants into the utmost alarm and dismay." 
This bombardment was occasioned by a party of Liberty Boys, among 
whom was Alexander Hamilton, executing an order of the Provincial Con- 
gress to remove the guns on the Battery because of their danger to the 
patriot cause. A barge of the Asia, reconnoitering, fired on the patriots. 
The fire was returned, killing one of the crew, when the barge made Its way 
to the ship, which proceeded to cannonade the town, "riddling the houses 
near the Battery and severely wounding three citizens. Great excitement 
existed, the drums beat to arms and many of the people fled." In the face 
of the fire of the Asia the Liberty Boys continued their task until they 
had carried away the last of the twenty-one pieces from the Battery. On 
April 14, 1776, Washington arrived from Boston, and took up his quar- 
ters at Richmond Hill, on the corner of Varick and Charlton streets, an 
interesting description of which from old writings is given in the next 
chapter. 




CHAPTER XIV. 



(1776-1780.) 



Richmond Hill — Tom Paine's "Common Sense" — Death of Tom Paine — 

Great Fire of 1776— First Written Constitution of New York 

Framed at Princeton — ^Intense Cold in 1779. 

Fronting the Hudson, with nothing to obstruct the view, stood in 1776 
Richmond Hill, the residence of Washington from the time of his return 
from Boston after the expulsion of the British troops until he retreated 
from the city and fixed his quarters at the house of Robert Murray, on 
Murray Hill. From the latter place he issued his instructious to Nathan 
Hale regarding the information to be obtained by him when he penetrated 
the British lines on Long Island. Richmond Hill had been built "by Major 
Martier, an English officer, in 1766, on what is now Charlton street, a few 
feet from Varick. At that time "meadows stretched up toward the little 
hamlet of Greenwich Village, and on the left the view of the little city in 
the distance was half hidden by clumps of trees and rising hills. There 
was a broad entrance to the house, under a porch of imposing height sup- 
ported by high columns, with balconies fronting the rooms of the second 
story. The premises were entered by a spacious gateway, flanked by orna- 
mental columns, at what is now the termination of Macdougal street. 
Within the gate and to the north was a beautiful sheet of water known 
as Burr's pond." 

The glory of Richmond Hill lasted for many years after Washington 
occupied it. It was the home of Vice-President Adams during the first 
year of the Constitutional government, and men and women eminent in the 
Old World were guests within its walls during its occupancy by Aaron Burr, 
"whose daughter, Theodosia, dispensed a charming hospitality." After her 
disappearance and his own fall from prominence prior to 1808 Richmond 
Hill's glory departed, and from a first class theatre it passed through the 
gradations of circus and menagerie, and was finally abandoned. It is now 
the site of a private residence. 

The idea of independence was fast gaining ground among the people 
in 1776, and arguments poised on the lips of many, and, through lack of 
courage, not uttered, were fearlessly projected after the appearance of 
Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," published in Philadelphia. Through it 
the whole nation was electrified with the spirit of independence and liberty, 
and the link binding the colonies to the mother country was severed. So 
cogent was the reasoning of Paine that his conclusions were accepted, and 
on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced in Congress the resolution 
absolving the colonies from all allegiance to the British Crown and severing 

6S 



CRADLE DAYS Of NEW YORK. 69 

their political connection with it. New York's delegates to the Congress 
had been uninstructed how to proceed when this question arose, and, "fear- 
ing a traitor's doom, they drew back shrinkingly from the perilous step." 

Thomas Paine died in 1809, in the house now numbered 59 Bleecker 
street. Bleecker street at the period mentioned was a road leading from 
Minetta Brook to Greenwich Village, and the house of Mme. Bonneville, in 
which Paine lived and died, stood near what is now Grove street. 

"September 21, 1776. A great fire commenced in a small wooden 
house on the wharf near the Whitehall Slip. It was then occupied by a 
number of men and women of a bad character. The fire began late at 
night. There being but a very few inhabitants in the city, in a short 
time it raged tremendously. It burned all the houses on the east side of 
Whitehall Slip and the west side of Broad street to Beaver street. A provi- 
dential and happy circumstance occurred at this time: the wind was then 
southwesterly. About 2 o'clock that morning the wind veered to the 
southeast. ' This carried the flames of the fire to the north-westward, and 
burned both sides of Beaver street to the east side of Broadway, then crossed 
Broadway to Beaver Lane, and burning all the houses on both sides of 
Broadway, with some few houses in New street to Rector street, and to 
John Harrison, Esq.'s, three-story brick house, which house stopped the 
fire on the east side of Broadway; from thence it continued, burning all the 
houses in Lumber street and those in the rear of the houses on the west 
side of Broadway to St. Paul's Church, then continued burning the houses 
on both sides of Partition street and all the houses in the rear (again) 
of the west side of Broadway to North River. The fire did not stop until 
it got into Mortkile (now Barclay) street. The college yard and the 
vacant ground in the rear of the same put an end to this awful and tre- 
mendous fire. 

"Trinity Church being burned was occasioned by the flakes of fire 
that fell on the south side of the roof. The southerly wind fanned those 
flakes of fire in a short time to an amazing blaze, and it soon became out 
of human power to extinguish the same, the roof of this noble edifice being 
so steep that no person could go on it. 

"St. Paul's Church was in the like perilous situation. The roof being 
flat, with a balustrade on the eaves, a number of the citizens went on the 
same and extinguished the flakes of fire as they fell on the roof. Thus 
happily was this beautiful church saved from the destruction of this dreadful 
fire, which threatened the ruin thereof and that of. the whole city. 

"The Lutheran Church being contiguous to houses adjoining the same 
fire, it was impossible to save it from destruction. This fire was so furious 
and violently hot that no person could go near it, and there were no fire 
engines to be had at that time in the city. 

"The number of houses that were burned and destroyed in this city at 
that awful conflagration were thus, viz.: 

From Mortkile street to Courtlandt street 167 

From Courtlandt street to Beaver street 175 

From Beaver street to the East River 151 

Total 493 



70 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

"There being very few inhabitants in the city at the time, and many 
of those were afraid to venture at night in the streets, for fear of being 
talcen up as suspicious persons. 

"A Mr. White, a decent citizen and house carpenter, rather too violent 
a loyalist, and latterly had addicted himself to liquor, was on the night 
of the fire hanged on a tavern signpost, at the corner of Cherry and Roose- 
velt streets. Several of the citizens were sent to the provost guard for 
examination, and some of them remained there two or three days, until 
they could give satisfactory evidence of their loyalty. 

"Mr. Hugh Gain, in his 'Universal Register' for the year 1787, page 119, 
says: 'New York is about a mile and a half in length and half a mile 
broad, containing before the fires on the 21st of September, 1776, and 3d of 
August, 1778, about 4,200 houses and 30,000 inhabitants.' " 

The Sons of Liberty were accused by the British of being the incen- 
diaries, and a number of them were thrust into the flames in revenge for 
the supposed outrage. Several citizens were also arrested and imprisoned, 
but the charge of being accessories was not sustained, and they were 
released. So great was the distress among the inhabitants "that they tacked 
sheets of canvas to the remnants of charred walls and standing chimneys, 
thus forming a city of tents, in which they bivouacked." 

This fire occurred at the time when Howe's troops were stretched 
in a cordon across the island, in readiness to fall upon the army of 
Washington, encamped upon the heights on the opposite side of Harlem 
Plains, Washington occupying as headquarters the Roger Morris 
house, which overlooks the Harlem a little below High Bridge, and is now 
known as the Jumel Mansion. The loyalist owner of the property, Colonel 
Morris, had married the beautiful Mary Phillipse, whom Washington at one 
time wooed in vain. In this house battles were planned, consultations were 
held with chiefs of the Indian tribes, "and secret instructions were issued 
to the 'spy of the neutral ground.' After the Revolution the estate was 
confiscated, and was then purchased by John Jacob Astor, who sold it 
to Stephen Jumel. After Jumel's death his widow married Aaron Burr, 
but he left her shortly after, and sought seclusion on Staten Island. Upon 
the keystone of an arch in the main hall is the date 1758, and from its 
piazza may be seen the lower city, Brooklyn Bridge, seven counties in two 
different States, three rivers and Long Island Sound. While at the Morris 
house Washington became acquainted with Captain Alexander Hamilton 
through General Greene, and established the friendship which linked their 
lives and fame together." New York City took title to this property in 
1903 from the widow of General Ferdinand P. Earle, the consideration 
being $235,000. 

Cadwallader Colden, who had for so many years played a promi- 
nent part in the affairs of the city, died in 1776, at the age of eighty- 
nine. The historian says of Colden: "While a man of pre-eminent talent 
and of scientific attainments, and loved and honored by the people, he was 
ensnared to play a part in the Revolution which placed an indelible stain 
on his character, and caused him to sacrifice the welfare of his country to 
the arbitrary maintenance of the royal prerogative." 

During the latter part of 1776 "many Tories, who had been expelled 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. yi 

from the surrounding country by the vigorous measures of the Committee 
of Safety, now returned to New York." "The Royal Gazette" recommenced 
publication, while the owner of the organ of the Liberty party was driven 
from place to place along the North River. General Howe was in the 
saddle, the protector of the Tories and the oppressor of the lovers of liberty. 
Foremost among the Tories was Oliver De Lancey, brother of the former 
Lieutenant Governor of the province. He was haughty and imperious in 
manners, and possessed an almost diabolical knowledge of human nature. 
So disliked was he that on the night of November 25, 1777, a party of Lib- 
erty Boys burned his house at Bloomingdale, by way of revenge for his 
infidelity to his country. His estates, as well as those of James De Lancey, 
his nephew, were confiscated by the government after the Revolution. 

In April of the year mentioned above the first written constitution of 
the State of New York was framed at Kingston. With few changes, we are 
governed by it to-day. George Clinton, patriot and statesman, as first Gov- 
ernor, held the office for eighteen years. 

"A French fleet, consisting of 12 ships of the line and some frigates, 
with 6,000 troops on board, arrived off Sandy Hook, but declined an engage- 
ment with the British fleet, and repaired to Newport." This expedition was 
projected by the French Government through the efforts and eloquence of 
Franklin, Deane and Arthur Lee, commissioners dispatched to the European 
courts by the colonies to ask their sympathy and aid. It was the intention 
of the commander of the French fleet. Count d'Estaing, to attack the city 
by water, while Washington was making a simultaneous attack by land. 
The pilots refused to take the French ships over the bar, and the assault was 
abandoned. 

The year 1777 is also memorable for the action of Pitt, the former idol 
of America, in whose honor the colonists had kindled bonfires and erected 
statues. When the strife was going on in Parliament against acknowledg- 
ing the independence of America, Lord Rockingham urging the ministry 
to abandon the struggle, Pitt rose in his seat and spoke against it with so 
much vehemence that he became exhausted and sank fainting to the floor. 
He was carried out of Parliament for the last time, though his words 
prevailed, and the war against the colonies was renewed with vigor, Howe 
being recalled and Sir Henry Clinton filling his place. 

"1778.— The winters of this and the following year were extremely 
mild." On August 3 of this year "another great fire happened on Cruger's 
wharf, in which there were about 50 houses consumed. The cause of 
many houses being burned at this time was the military officers taking the 
ordering and directing of the fire from the firemen. The citizens com- 
plained thereof to the commander-in-chief, who immediately gave out, in 
general orders, that in future no military man should interfere with any 
fire that may happen in the city, but leave the extinguishing thereof to 
the entire directions of the firemen and inhabitants. The military should 
place sentries over the goods that were saved from the fire." The fire 
commenced in Dock street, now Pearl, in the vicinity of Broad street. The 
fire companies had been disbanded during the Revolutionary struggle, and 
the military charged themselves with extinguishing it, with the result 
noted in the old manuscript. "Scarcely had the flames been quenched 



72 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

when a new calamity occurred — the explosion of the powder ship Morning 
Star, which was anchored in the East River, during a violent thunderstorm. 
Houses along the shore were unroofed by the shock, windows were shat- 
tered and furniture demolished. A boy who had been left in charge while 
the crew were ashore perished." 

The end of the winter of 1779 and all of the winter of 1780 saw much 
suffering in old New York from the intense cold. "It exceeded in severity 
anything that had ever been dreamed of," says the old manuscript. "Wood 
was not to be had at any price, and many families would split up their 
chairs and tables to cook their breakfast, then go to bed for the rest of 
the day to keep warm. The rivers about the city were transformed into 
a solid bridge of ice for forty days. Eighty cannon were dragged across 
to Staten Island from the foot of Rector street to repel the expected attack 
of Lord Stirling." 

"1780. — May 19. A celebrated and fearful darkness commenced in the 
atmosphere at 10 o'clock in the morning, which lasted for several hours." 
A coffee house was established this year, and the year is also memorable 
for the treason of Benedict Arnold, which is a matter of history. Arnold 
concealed himself in the Verplanck House, in Wall street, and at No. 9 
Broadway. 




CHAPTER XV. 



(1780-1784.) 



Chelsea Village — Its Origin — Clement C. Moore — Treaty of Peace Signed — 
Reception of General Washington — Black Sam's Tavern — Recep- 
tion to Lafayette — Proposition to Establish Waterworks. 

"Dear old Chelsea Village," said one of its residents to the writer lately, 
"has nearly passed away. Its green fields and its gardens, redolent of the 
perfume of flowers, have given place to bricks and mortar. It is too bad 
that life is not perpetual. If it were, those who love the peace and quiet 
to be extracted from relationship with nature would be able to press back 
that unromantic fiend. Commerce, and retain, unmolested, their rus et 
urbe." 

It is no wonder that such sentiments are expressed. There are many 
people in New York to-day who strain to break the link of the commercial 
chain holding them, that they may have one day now and then to wander 
through the sections of country where echoes not the trolley bell nor pumps 
the elevated train, where money is not an all absorbing topic and where 
peace reigns. 

In Chelsea Village the searcher after relics of bygone days may find a 
few, though many have been crushed out of existence. Modern improve- 
ments have not entirely obliterated the green wooden shutters or the curi- 
ously designed iron fences, or the carved doorways, with brass knockers, 
or the diamond-pane windows, or the wide stairways with heavy posts, as, 
for instance, in the row of little houses west of Ninth avenue on Twenty- 
fourth street, known as the Chelsea Cottages. The old people of the section 
of New York where all that remains of old Chelsea Village is can tell you 
of the quaint little houses, with pretty gardens, that stood behind such 
and such buildings standing to-day. They will point out to you little 
alleys, black and gloomy, that vv-ere one time streets or short cuts from one 
place to another place. They will tell you that on the block between 
Twenty-second and Twenty-third streets, from Eighth to Ninth avenue, at 
one time stood the picturesque home of Clement C. Moore, son of the 
second Bishop of New York and writer of the nursery rhyme, "'Twas the 
Night Before Christmas." "The kindliest of scholars, the most learned of 
college professors, the most assiduous of bookworms," composed this little 
rhyme in what the Old Chelsea resident will tell you was a cosey home 
surrounded by great oaks and elms. In the Church of St. Peter, in West 
Twentieth street, reminiscent of the old days, a memorial tells the simple 
record of Clement C. Moore's good works. Old St. Peter's has been touched 
up with modern ideas during the last few years, but it still retains its 

7i 



74 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

solidity, evidence of honesty in building and of simplicity, as befits its 
mission. 

To Captain Thomas Clarke, a veteran of the French and Indian wars, is 
due the credit for establishing Chelsea. Far away in 1750 this American 
soldier built a house on a hill which stood opposite what is now London 
Terrace, on West Twenty-third street, and called it Chelsea, after a retreat 
of that name in England for old soldiers. At the time mentioned this 
house was the only one to be seen for miles around. Shortly after its 
erection a fire occurred in it, and it was burned almost to the ground. 
Captain Clarke, who was ill at the time, was carried from it, and died at 
the house of a friend. After his death his wife rebuilt it and lived in it, 
with her two daughters, until her death in 1802, when it became the 
property of the father of Clement C. Moore, and, after the former's death, 
passed to the son. From this old house is derived the name of the former 
village, also the name Chelsea Square. The present Theological Seminary of 
the Episcopal Church stands on a part of the Moore Farm. 

What remains of London Terrace and its deep gardens is also an evi- 
dence of the beauty and respectability of old Chelesa before the rush of 
population engulfed them. 

Another old landmark of Chelsea Village is at the corner of Twenty- 
eighth street and Ninth avenue, the Church of the Holy Apostles. The 
founding of this church is of especial interest. For disobeying his father's 
wish that he should not adopt the ministry as his calling, a young man was 
disinherited. The father, seeing the son consistently following his chosen 
religious path, made a new will leaving to him his entire possessions. 
With the death of the father, and the division equally by the son of the 
property among the heirs, his own share was given as a thank offering to 
build the church. 

Now, for the end of the Revolution and the reclamation of New York. 
Disaffection prevailed among the soldiers of Washington in 1781 because of 
the scanty fare and arrears of pay. Inducements to desert were offered by 
Sir Henry Clinton to the Pennsylvania troops, who had abandoned the main 
army and set out for Philadelphia to demand a redress of their grievances 
by Congress. His agents, however, were seized by the patriots as spies 
and delivered up to Congress. At Princeton a deputation from Congress 
met the disaffected soldiers, and immediately took steps to relieve them by 
levying taxes and requisitions on the surrounding country. The Southern 
campaign opened favorably this year for the Americans. 

On March 28, 1782, Lord North resigned as head of the British Cabinet, 
and Lord Rockingham succeeded him. Under his leadership Sir Guy Carle- 
ton, who had arrived in New York to succeed Clinton, after the reception in 
England of the news of the defeat of Cornwallis, was charged to negotiate 
for an early treaty of peace. On November 30, "after much correspond- 
ence and negotiation, preliminary articles of peace were signed at Paris, 
though intrigue was used by the British ambassadors to prevail on the 
American commissioners to accept a twenty years' truce, instead of an 
open acknowledgment of independence." On September 3, 1783, a definitive 
treaty on the part of Great Britain, recognizing the independence of the 
United States, was signed. On November 3, 1783, the Continental army 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 75 

was disbanded by order of Congress, and on the 19th Washington arrived 
at Day's Tavern, corner of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street and Eighth 
avenue. It was not until November 25 that the British and their sup- 
porters took tlieir leave, and not openly or fairly, either. "Their last mo- 
ments were employed in the commission of base and unmanly outrages. 
Unreeving the halyards at Fort George, they knocked off the cleats and 
greased the pole, to prevent the hoisting of the American colors; then 
evacuated the fort, sure that the Stars and Stripes would not be hoisted 
until they were far out of sight of their folds." Goelefs hardware store, 
in Hanover Square, however, supplied the indignant onlookers with the 
necessary tools to bore new cleats for the flagstaff, and, with a sailor boy 
tying the halyards around his waist and nailing the cleats above him to 
the right and left as he ascended, the flag was hoisted to its place with a 
salute of thirteen guns, heard by the British troops. 

At 8 o'clock on the evening of November 25, with General Knox at 
their head, the Continentals marched from McGowan's Pass down the old 
Post Road into the Bowery, and halted; then into Chatham and into Queen 
street, up Wall street to Broadway and Rector street. "As soon as the 
city was quietly in the possession of the American Army, General Knox, 
with a great number of respectable citizens on horseback, repaired to the 
Bowery to receive His Excellency General Washington and George Clinton, 
the Governor of the State, who, with their respective suites, and followed 
by the Lieutenant Governor and Senators, the officers of the army and 
citizens, on horseback, eight abreast, and citizens on foot, four abreast, 
entered the city through the Bowery, Chatham and Pearl streets, to the 
Battery." The meeting took place at the Bull's Head Tavern, where the 
present forlorn Old Bowery Theatre stands. 

Washington lingered a few days, fixing his headquarters at Black 
Sam's Tavern (called familiarly after Sam Fraunces, the host, at that time 
known also as the Queen's Head Tavern and later as Fraunces' Tavern. 
Fraunces was afterward steward in Washington's household when Presi- 
dent), in Broad street, where at noon on December 4 his officers assembled 
to bid him farewell. "Washington could scarce restrain his feelings; his 
friends did not attempt to do so. Filling a glass for a farewell toast, he 
turned to the company and said: 'With a heart full of love and gratitude, I 
now take leave of you, and most devoutly wish that your latter days may 
be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and 
honorable. I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be 
obliged if each one will come and take me by the hand.' They did so, and 
he passed from the room to Whitehall, whence he was conveyed to Paulus 
Hook, thence to Annapolis, where Congress was in session and where he 
resigned his commission as commander-in-chief, and then to Mount Vernon. 
to resume the duties of a private citizen." 

At this period there were not more than twenty thousand inhabitants 
in the city, which did not extend further north than Murray street. All 
the churches but the Episcopal had been destroyed or used for military 
purposes, such as hospitals, barracks, riding schools, etc. There were no 
public moneyed or charitable institutions, no banks or insurance offices: 
trade was at a low ebb, education had been entirely neglected, and the 



-jt CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

schools and colleges were shut up. Such was the gloomy condition of the 
city after the Revolution. "The books and accounts of the corporation 
during the Revolutionary War were taken away by Mr. Cruger (treasurer), 
who joined the British Army and left this country." 

In 1784 the civic authority again resumed its functions and endeavored 
to restore order out of confusion — "to collect the city debts and rents, which 
had fallen greatly in arrears, and were in a great measure totally lost 
during the war; to trace out and secure the public property of every 
description, such as leased ground, water lots, etc. The seat of the State 
government was removed to Albany, and the Council of Appointment vested 
with authority to name all civil officers in the State, which before the war 
was exercised by the Governor." James Duane, a native born citizen, who 
had wrecked his fortune in the Revolutionary struggle, and had returned 
to his farm near what is now Gramercy Park, to find his house burned 
and his propertj' destroj'ed, became the unanimous choice of the people 
for Mayor, and on February 5, 1784, was so installed, holding the office 
for five years. Richard Varick was made Recorder. Lafayette, on Septem- 
ber 11, "arrived in the city to embark for France, and was waited upon 
by the corporation with an address, and the freedom of the city voted him." 
October 2 — "John Jay arrived from Europe, and was v/elcomed by the 
corporation, who paid him the highest honors in their power." October 6 — 
"Baron Steuben arrived, and was addressed by the corporation, and the 
freedom of the city voted to him." December 2 — "General Washington 
arrived, and was received with the greatest enthusiasm by the citizens. 
The corporation made him an address of congratulation and thanks, and 
voted the freedom of the city." Elizabethtown Ferry was leased for £65 a 
year in 1784, and the streets were cleaned for £150, and wells and pumps 
were repaired for £140. 

Samuel Ogden this year proposed to establish waterworks for the city. 
His proposition was "referred" by the corporation, as was that of Christo- 
pher Collis in 1774. Two years after Ogden's proposition was made, or 
in 1786, Robert R. Livingston also proposed "to convey the fresh water 
into the city." He received the "direction and use" of the Bowling Green 
for the purpose, but his scheme was unsuccessful. On December 17, 1798, 
one month after an epidemic of yellow fever, which prevailed from July 
to November, with a mortality of 2,086, the authorities were compelled by 
public pressure to take up the various propositions which had been made 
to them to supply the city with pure and wholesome water. Bronx River 
was surveyed by an English engineer named Weston, but "the corporation 
shrunk from the immense expense anticipated ($1,000,000), and a private 
incorporation was started to accomplish the object, called the Manhattan 
Company." It received an unlimited charter from the legislature, "with a 
capital to be used for the purpose for which it was formed, the surplus to 
be employed in banking operations, and the exclusive privilege of using the 
springs on the island for the supply of the city." 

For many years after the period mentioned the Manhattan Company 
supplied New York with water drawn from deep wells and springs, and 
forced up by a steam engine to a reservoir in Chambers street that was 
fifteen feet above the level of Broadway. This water was distributed 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 77 

through every street in the city by means of wooden pipes running three 
feet under the level of the pavement. Lateral pipes extended into every 
house that paid the company the regular tax therefor, $10, but extra com- 
pensation was necessary to procure a larger flow than ordinarily. The 
works of this company were in Reade street, "a few rods northeast from 
the City Hall." 

Here is an extract from a report made to the city authorities as to what 
the Manhattan Company intended to do in the way of improvements in the 
early part of 1800: "They intend to discard the filthy wooden logs in 
which the water has hitherto been conveyed throughout the city, and to 
substitute cast-iron pipes, which are perfectly clean and ever durable. They 
have made several experiments in boring for water to a great depth in 
different places, but the result has not been very satisfactory." The cor- 
poration, however, seemed to have tried its hand in sinking shafts at 
the same time, for "it met with better success than the Manhattan Com- 
pany by sinking shafts in Washington and Fulton markets, and in the 
rear of the City Hall, where a pure soft water was obtained, which, coming 
from a great depth below all the impurities of the surface, will be of much 
benefit, if to be obtained in adequate quantities in the southern wards of 
the city." 




CHAPTER XVI. 



(1784-1785.) 



Trysting Place of New York's Belles and Beaux — Homes of Old New 

Yorkers — Fashionable Hotels in the old Days — Formation 

of Political Parties — Tryon Row. 

That the trysting place of New York's belles and beaux a century 
ago was the Battery — an oasis in the congested lower part of the city, and 
shamefaced because of its defacement by the elevated road — is known to 
few. It was, however. And even when the center of fashion of the youthful 
city was at Bleecker and Bond streets, the termination of an afternoon 
walk of Knickerbocker lovers and their staid elders was under the trees by 
the waterside at the Battery. The park was then half its present size, and 
with no formidable sea wall to stop the tide, which rippled decorously on 
a beach of rocks and sand, and Castle Garden was a frowning fortress, 
reached by a wooden bridge. 

Before Dame Fashion turned her magnet to this part of the city where 
the Dutch laid the first foundations of a metropolis for the New World, 
there clustered the homes of merchants of sterling qualities. In the neigh- 
borhood of Bowling Green was the home of Stephen Whitney, later one of 
old New York's millionaires. Robert Goelet lived in State street, and the 
Rhinelanders, Leroys and Schermerhorns on lower Broadway. 

When Dame Fashion laid her magnet temporarily aside, Washington 
Square, Great Jones street and Lafayette Place held her devotees, and the 
current of business buried their former abodes under its waves, the last 
Knickerbocker house to be engulfed being that of Stephen Whitney, which 
faced Bowling Green and looked up Broadway. 

At this period of the city's history fashionable hotels and boarding- 
houses a-plenty were to be found on Broadway. The Adelphi Hotel was 
on the corner of Beaver street; the Mansion House at No. 39 Broadway; the 
City Hotel occupied the entire block between Thames and Cedar streets, 
"and was the loftiest edifice of that kind in the city;" the National Hotel 
was at No. 112 Broadway; the Franklin House, corner of Dey street; the 
American Hotel, Broadway and Barclay street; Washington Hall, Broadway 
and Reade street; Park Place House, corner of Broadway and Park Place; 
Niblo's Bank Coffee House, Pine and William streets; Tontine Coffee House, 
Wall street, corner of Water. The principal book stores and libraries were 
also in lower Broadway. What was more natural, then, than to have "one 
of the noblest places of public recreation in the world" convenient to the 
business centre of the city — the Castle Garden, which was built as a place 
of defence in 1807, and retained for public purposes until 1823, when it was 

78 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 79 

ceded by the United States government to the corporation of New York? 
Immense sums of money, for that time, were expended in its erection, and 
the foundation, superstructure and bridge cost the government at different 
times several hundred thousand dollars. In 1824 it was leased for five 
years at $1,400 a year, and became a fashionable resort. Here is a descrip- 
tion of it worth reading in 1909: 

"The felicitous situation of this spot, projecting out from the line of 
the Battery into the deep waters of the harbor and commanding one of the 
noblest views in the world, caused at its opening a rush of genteel company 
during the warm season that was quite unprecedented before in our city. 
The illusions of the scene at this place during the pleasant evenings of 
summer are truly delightful, when the bridge leading to the Garden and 
the whole interior of the premises are gaily lighted with numerous lamps. 
A full band of music is always engaged, and fireworks and other exhibitions 
attract nightly a vast concourse of genteel citizens and strangers. The 
combination of objects that are here presented to the eye are frequently of 
the most gratifying description. The Hudson River, stretching far to the 
north; the near view of large ships of war and merchantmen moored off 
in the river or harbor; the arrival or departure of steamboats crowded with 
passengers and noisy with bells, steam and bugles, and smoky and foamy 
in their progress; the distant forts; the large and dry terrace and parterres 
of the Battery Walk, swarming with visitors; the fine trees and regular and 
handsome private dwellings around the east side of the Battery; the distant 
hills of Staten Island and New Jersey, covered with verdure — these are 
the attractions that cause the Castle Garden of New York to be the most 
favored place of public resort. A spacious ballroom, ninety feet long, is 
on the premises, and admission to the building may be gained by a yearly 
payment of $10 for a family, or $5 for a single person, or by nightly tickets. 
Refreshments of every description are furnished, and the whole interior 
sometimes displays numerous groups and parties, seated around their tables, 
partaking of their delicacies, and presenting the appearance of a large and 
happy party of pleasure, while the enlivening strains of music and the 
constant and moving variety of dress, feature, language and action keep 
the attention constantly awake and gratified." What simple tastes were 
those of our forefathers! 

As the foregoing introduction is over forty years ahead of the chronol- 
ogy, we will go back to 1784, when a bill was passed in the Assembly dis- 
franchising all who had adhered to the British cause; also, an act per- 
mitting all patriots who had been obliged to leave the city to bring an 
action for trespass against such Tories as had entered or occupied their 
houses during the British occupation. A test case on the latter act, in 
which the brilliant Alexander Hamilton showed his forensic power, soon 
took place. Joshua Waddington, a Tory merchant, bought the confiscated 
estate of Elizabeth Rutgers, who had fled from the city on the approach 
of General Howe, abandoning her property. Under the Trespass Act Mrs. 
Rutgers, returning, claimed the estate, "much sympathy being enlisted for 
her." Hamilton's sense of justice led him to espouse the cause of the 
Tory merchant and win the case for him, which resulted in the formation 
of a conspiracy by a number of the Liberty Boys to challenge Hamilton to 



8o CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

a duel with pistols. The conspiracy was not permitted to mature, how- 
ever, though a wordy war was carried on between "Phoolan" (Hamilton's 
nom de plume) and "Mentor" (that of Ledyard, one of the Liberty Boys). 
The sense of justice prevailed among the people, and Hamilton was sus- 
tained. 

The act of the Assembly disfranchising the adherents to the British 
cause resulted in the formation of two political parties in New York, the 
federalists (the refranchised royalists) and the anti-federalists. The former 
strove to have the, to them, obnoxious act repealed, but were stoutly opposed 
by the Sons of Liberty. Hamilton and Schuyler seconded the efforts of the 
federalists, however, and on February 3, 1787, the loyalists were reinstated 
in their privileges of citizenship, and threw their support to Hamilton a 
few years afterward, when "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a 
given time by the brain and purpose of man" — the American Constitution — 
was presented to the people to be acted upon. 

Beginning with the year 1784, the spirit of public improvements was 
revived in New York. Steps were taken to improve the waste ground 
around the Collect, and the barracks along the line of Chambers street, from 
Broadway to Chatham street, which had been built during the old French 
war, were declared useless, and were leased as dwellings for the benefit of 
the city. These barracks were rude log huts, one story high, surrounded 
by a high wall, with a gate at Broadway and one at Chatham street. The 
eastern gate was known as "Tryon's," and the present Tryon Row takes its 
name from it. 

In 1785 "the first Congress of the United States, after the Revolution- 
ary War, met in New York, and was organized in the City Hall, that stood 
in Wall street, corner of Nassau." This year a sale of corporation lots, the 
proceeds to be applied to extinguish the city debts, took place. Eight were 
sold near the Bear Market (now Vesey and Greenwich streets) for 
£2,879 8s., and one for £300, and Staten Island Ferry was leased for £20 a 
year. "Arrearages of quit rents from 1st May, 1776, to 24th November, 
1783, were given up by the corporation to all who had left the city during 
the war." On May 2 "General Washington made a reply to the address of 
the corporation." 

It is noted in the old manuscripts that "the Bank of New York is in 
operation." This was the oldest incorporated banking institution in the 
city. It was founded during the Revolutionary War, but was not Incor- 
porated until March 21, 1791. The charter then granted was for twenty 
years, and "the capital stock was to consist of 950,000 dollars, divided into 
1,900 shares, of 500 dollars each. It was rechartered in May, 1811, and 
again in May, 1820, and subsequently in 1832." It stood on the corner 
of William and Wall streets. 

On October 5 of this year "Thomas Pool petitioned the corporation 
and prayed that he be permitted to exhibit some feats of horsemanship 
in the Bowling Green. It was read and rejected." On October 14 "a 
donation of £40 made to the corporation, for the use of the poor, by the 
company of Comedians, was by the Common Council ordered to be returned, 
with a note of disapprobation at the establishment of a Play House without 
having been licensed as unprecedented and offensive; and while so great 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 8i 

a part of the city was still lying In ruins, and the citizens still suffering 
under distress, there Is a loud call to industry and economy, and it would 
be unjustifiable in them to countenance expensive and enticing amuse- 
ments. That among those, a Play House, however regulated, was to be 
numbered, while, if under no restraint, it may prove a fruitful source of 
dissipation, criminality and vice." The salary of the Mayor was £250 a 
year in 1785. 

The Manumission Society, formed for the purpose of ameliorating the 
condition of the slaves in the State of New York, began its work this year, 
and was incorporated on February 19, 1808. Its affairs were managed by 
a committee of well known and responsible citizens, eager to obtain for 
the slaves "advantages already sanctioned by law, and to confer on them 
a virtuous education." The society administered its work successfully, 
and through its unwearied exertions the slaves gradually diminished in 
numbers and began to enjoy the privileges of freemen. 

The year 1786 opened crucially in New York. The loose confederation 
of the thirteen States was causing alarm. Independence had been gained, 
and with its advent and the freedom from control of Britain the States 
began to act separately, in accordance with the Article of Confederation. A 
thin cord in the hand of an impotent Congress was the only thing that held 
them together. New York passed a law compelling Connecticut sloops 
laden with firewood for the inhabitants to report to the customs authorities 
and to pay duties. New Jersey farmers were also compelled, according to 
law, to pay customs duties on their products as soon as they arrived at 
Whitehall Slip. Retaliatory measures were taken, of course, by these 
States, and affairs began to look ominous. The need of a closer vmion of 
the States and of an efficient general government soon became apparent. 
James Madison, of Virginia, noted the exigency, and on September 11, 
1786, a convention "to mature trade regulations" between the States was 
held at Annapolis. Five States were represented. Alexander Hamilton 
represented New York, and prepared an address, which was adopted by the 
convention, in which he urged the States to appoint commissioners to a 
further convention, to deliberate not alone on commercial relations, but "to 
devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render 
the Constitution of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the 
Union." His work at this convention resulted in the Philadelphia Con- 
vention in the following May, at which George Washington presided.. On 
September 17, 1787, the present Constitution of the United States was 
adopted by the delegates and submitted to the different States for approval. 
While New York State has the credit of having initiated the movement 
which resulted so gloriously, she was not the first to accept the result of 
the convention's work. Little Delaware holds that honor, and New York 
stands eleventh, not having adopted it till July 26, 1788, at Poughkeepsie, 
her inhabitants averring that it placed too much power in the hands of the 
Executive. 

Prior to New York's acceptance of the Constitution, demonstrations 
were held by the federalists and anti-federalists, and on July 23, three 
days before Its adoption, a thirty-two gun frigate, christened "The Federal 
Ship Hamilton," manned by thirty seamen and marines, was drawn by ten 



82 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



horses through the streets In procession from the Bowling Green to Bayard's 
Farm, in the vicinity of Grand street. "Between four and five thousand 
persons were feasted in the open air, and thousands flocked from the 
neighboring country to witness the spectacle." Sarcastic remarks on this 
demonstration in a paper called "The Patriotic Register" Incensed the 
federalists, "and a spirit of mobocracy broke out, resulting in the breaking 
open of the office in Pine street, in which the paper was set, and the 
destruction of the one press and type." Another attack "was made on the 
house of John Lamb, in Wall street, between Pearl and William streets, but 
without ill effects." The city, however, soon subsided into a state of quiet, 
and on September 13, 1788, the adoption of the Constitution was publicly 
declared and the city of New York selected as the seat of the general 
government. 




CHAPTER XVn. 



(1785-1788.) 



Fair Greenwich — Origin of Abingdon Square — Bank Street — Second Jewish 

Burying Ground — Stage Line Between Greenwich Village and 

Pine Street — Monument to General Montgomery, 

Fair Greenwich Village, 

Slept by Hudson's rural shore, 
Two miles out from New York City, 

With its bustle, rush and roar! 
Then great Gotham's "eighty thousand" 

Filled the New World with amaze, 
And the City Hall was building 

"Out of town" in those "fast" days! 

Well named "fair Greenwich" by the poet is this part of New York, 
which, with the exception of the vicinity of the Battery, is said to have 
been the oldest habitation of white men on the island. Historians vary 
in opinion as to its origin, but most of them grant to Sir Peter Warren, 
K. B., the honor of founding It, if the term may be used. However, in a 
land conveyance of 1721, twenty-three years before the advent of Sir Peter, 
the name Greenwich is used as an alias, originated by whom the writer 
cannot say. 

Sir Peter Warren was "some pumpkins" in New York in 1744. He 
had then returned from Martinique, where he had captured many French 
and Spanish prizes with his squadron of sixteen sailing craft. These were 
sold for him by Stephen De Lancey & Co., and netted him a considerable 
fortune, and it is said he bought his Greenwich farm of three hundred 
acres with a part of the money. At any rate, the rise of Greenwich is at- 
tributed to the Wily Sir Peter, who married the daughter of his sales agent, 
Susannah De Lancey. Abingdon Square, with its little park, is a memento 
of the Warren farm, the oldest of Sir Peter's three daughters having mar- 
ried the Earl of Abingdon, for whom the square is named. Abijah Ham- 
mond became the owner of the farm after the death of the vice admiral, 
and in 1819 Mr. Van Ness purchased from him the mansion, with the 
square bounded by Fourth, Bleecker, Perry and Charlos streets. In 1865 the 
house was torn down, and most of the present houses were erected on its 
site. 

No more bewildering confusion of street formation exists anywhere 
than in this section of the city, where was once old Greenwich. An exam- 
ple is Fourth street, which crosses Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth streets 

83 



84 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

at very nearly right angles. Other streets start all right, run for a block or 
two with regularity, and then take unreasonable turns, or else bring one 
up before a brick wall. This condition may be attributed to the fantastic 
ideas of the owners of land in that section in the early period of the city's 
growth. When a short cut from one place to another was desired they 
cut a lane, and perhaps another to some part of the farm land, leaving, 
with what improved conditions the city has made in street making there, a 
tangled network of the old and the new that will not assimilate. 

Greenwich Road followed the line of the present Greenwich street, and 
led to Greenwich Village. While in dry weather most of the route was good 
ground, in wet weather, especially in the region of the Lispenard salt 
meadows, which then lay north and south of the present Canal street, and 
of the marshy valley of Manetta Creek (about Charlton street), it was 
difficult of access. An inland road was therefore approved in 1768 from 
the Post Road (the present Bowery) to what is now Astor Place, then to 
Waverley Place, then to Greenwich avenue. Two sections of this road exist 
to-day, Astor Place and Greenwich avenue, between Eighth and Fourteenth 
streets. The rest is obliterated. 

The open space at Astor Place is a part of the road to Greenwich known 
as Monument Lane, or "road to the Obelisk," because at its northern ex- 
tremity, or where is now Eighth avenue and Fifteenth street, General 
Wolfe, the hero of Quebec, had a memorial erected to him. The lane extended 
from the Bowery to Washington Square, turned northwest and skirted 
Greenwich Village. At Jefferson Market, where Greenwich avenue joins 
Sixth avenue, the reader will find the last section of the inland road. 

A prominent physician told the writer a short time ago that no more 
healthful location exists in New York than what was once the site of the 
village. This was also true in the old days, for the epidemics of virulent 
diseases that attacked the old city found no lodgement in Greenwich — in- 
deed, they assisted in her development. This healthfulness is due to the fact 
that the underlying soil of the district to a depth of at least fifty feet is a 
pure sand, and provides excellent natural drainage. 

Bank street is reminiscent of the yellow feyer epidemic of 1798, in 
that the Bank of New York and a branch of the Bank of the United States 
purchased two plots of eight city lots each in Greenwich Village — far 
away from the city proper — to which they could remove in case of being 
placed in danger of quarantine. In 1799 two houses were erected on them, 
and in September of the same year the banks were removed to the village, 
and gave the name to the present street, which was then a lane. The year 
1822 saw another influx of population to Greenwich Village because of its 
healthfulness. "The town fairly exploded and went flying beyond its 
borders, as though the pestilence had been a burning mine. The city pre- 
sented the appearance of a town besieged. From daybreak till night one 
Mne of carts, containing boxes, merchandise and effects, were seen moving 
itoward Greenwich Village and the upper parts of the city. Carriages and 
hacks, wagons and horsemen, were scouring the streets and filling the 
roads. . . . Temporary stores and offices were erecting. . . . Even 
on Sunday carts were in motion, and the saw and hammer busily at work. 
Within a few days thereafter (September) the Custom House, the Post- 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 85 

office, the bank, the insurance ofl3[ces and the printers of newspapers located 
themselves in the village, or in the upper part of Broadway, where they 
were free from the impending danger, and these places almost instanta- 
neously became the seat of the immense business usually carried on in the 
great metropolis." This epidemic "caused the building up of many streets 
with numerous wooden buildings, for the uses of the merchants, banks, 
offices, etc." An old authority says "that he saw corn growing on the 
present corner of Hammond (West Eleventh) and Fourth streets on a Sat- 
urday morning, and on the following Monday Sykes & Niblo had a house 
erected capable of accommodating three hundred boarders. Even the 
Brooklyn ferryboats ran up here daily." 

Three remnants of the town when the Greenwich region for the most 
part was open country, says another authority, are the two old frame 
dwellings, removed from their former site, a few feet away, to their present 
one, at the southeast corner of Eleventh street and Sixth avenue, and the 
triangular graveyard near the corner, the second place of burial owned by 
the Jews on the island. In 1830, when Eleventh street was opened on the 
lines of the City Plan, almost the whole of the Jewish burial ground was 
swept away. The street went directly across it, leaving only the corner on 
its south side and a still smaller corner on its north side. 

A walk through the heart of this interesting locality — the American 
quarter, from Fourteenth street down to Canal, west of Sixth avenue — will 
reveal a moral and physical cleanliness not found in any other semi-con- 
gested part of New York; an individuality of the positive sort transmitted 
from generation to generation; a picturesqueness in its old houses, "stand- 
ing squarely on their right to be individual" alongside those of modern 
times, and, above all else, a truly American atmosphere of the pure kind. 
Please remember, too, that in 1816 Greenwich Village had individualism 
enough to be the terminus of a stage line from Pine street and Broadway, 
the stages "running on the even hours from Greenwich and the uneven 
hours from Pine street." 

Again we will retrace our steps to the chronology, beginning with 
1786, when the annual expenses of the city were £10,308 4s. Mulberry 
street was opened and regulated this year, and a market house was estab- 
lished at Catharine Slip — the present one. On November 15, "Bakers not 
allowed to carry biscuit or rusk around the streets" — the why or where- 
fore is beyond the writer's pen. On December 13, "a great fall of snow." 

The only Catholic church in the city up to 1815 was St. Peter's, erected 
this year in Barclay street. It was a plain brick building, "of the size of 
81 by 48 feet." It had a square tower, surmounted with a dome and cross. 
The interior was ornamented with paintings from sacred subjects, and had 
an organ and a select choir. The present church is the second structure, 
the first having been destroyed by fire. 

1 In 17S7 "there were 364 tavern (or dram shop) licenses issued, at 30s. 
each, amounting to £546," and "Corporation lots at Peck Slip were leased 
for twenty-one years, for 35s. and 28s. per foot." This year is memorable 
for the establishment of the Humane Society, "an excellent Institution 
formed by a few philanthropic gentlemen," who aimed to ameliorate the 
sufferings of distressed debtors. 



86 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

When this society was founded, on January 26, it was named the 
"Society for the Relief of Distressed Debtors," but in 1803 the name was 
changed to "Humane Society." In 1806 it extended its original plan so as 
to include the recovery of persons apparently dead from drowning. On 
February 4, 1814, the society obtained a charter of incorporation, and at 
the time the "Collector of the laws of New York" said: "This is the first 
institution of the kind in this State which has for its avowed object the 
relief of imprisoned debtors. A society of a similar title "in the city of 
Albany has been instituted for the resuscitation of drowned persons, etc., 
but it is not blended with the other humane object of relieving imprisoned 
debtors." For a considerable period the institution was supported by 
casual donations, but afterward depended on annual subscriptions. These, 
with a donation of $600 from the corporation and a lot of ground in Tryon 
street, enabled it to erect a souphouse. For several years debtors in jail 
were supplied not only with soup, but with blankets and fuel. Each person 
received "three pints of good soup per day, with a due proportion of bread, 
meat and potatoes." In seasons of public calamity, "by sickness or by the 
severity of cold in winter, upward of 1,000 quarts of soup per day have 
been given by the souphouse." "The views of the Humane Society," says 
the record in 1829, "are now directed to the following branches: 1st. The 
support and clothing of debtors in prison, and maintenance of a souphouse. 
2d. The liberation of such debtors as are by law entitled to be discharged, 
and of such as are confined for small sums, and are peculiarly deserving of 
assistance. 3d. The distribution of soup to the poor in general, especially 
in cases of general public calamity. 4th. The resuscitation of persons 
apparently dead from drowning, and the discouraging the practice of 
street begging." , 

On April 3 "a monument to General Montgomery, made by order of 
Congress 25th January, 1776, was ordered to be placed in front of St. 
Paul's Church." The remains of the hero of Quebec were transferred from 
their Canadian resting place to the city and deposited with military honors 
beneath the mural tomb, on July 11, 1818. "As Montgomery, though of 
Irish parentage, was allied to many of the prominent families of the city 
through his marriage with the sister of Chancellor Livingston, the transfer 
of his remains occasioned a lively interest among the people." 

Here is a note from the old manuscript that will give food for thought: 
"This State, from its first settlement till this year, presented no instance 
of divorce, in any case whatever." What a preventive to the revealing of 
closet cadavers! What moral cleanliness and patience among the people! 

The most exciting event, probably, that ever took place in New York 
occurred on April 13, 1788. During the winters of 1787 and 1788 a number 
of bodies were dug up from private cemeteries in the city. When the fact 
became known "a violent excitement arose among the people, which 
awakened a great prejudice against the medical profession."! Absurd re- 
ports were circulated regarding the affair, and the New York Hospital was 
in the zone of superstition. To increase the excitement, some students of 
the hospital on April 13 exposed the limb of a body from the window of 
the dissecting room in sight of a group of boys playing around the grounds. 
The boys spread the news, and in a short time an immense multitude 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 87 

assembled and besieged the hospital. The doors were burst open, and the 
terrified physicians, who had attempted to secrete themselves, were dragged 
out. To save them from the fury of the crowd the magistrates interfered 
and lodged them in jail for safety. The next morning an attempt was 
made to search the houses of suspected physicians, but prominent men, such 
as Clinton, Hamilton and Jay, remonstrated, and for a few hours the mob 
was quiet. In the afternoon the city was the scene of intense excitement. 
The infuriated people had gathered about the jail and demanded possession 
of the students. When refused they assumed a hostile attitude and at- 
tacked the building, tearing down the fences and breaking the windows. 
The Mayor ordered the militia out, and himself led a large party of armed 
citizens to the relief of the besieged. Eloquence was of no use to allay the 
tempest surging around the hospital, and a volley of stones and brickbats 
which felled John Jay and Baron Stuben to the ground caused the Mayor 
to order the militia to fire on the crowd. At the first volley a number of the 
rioters fell and the rest dispersed. Five persons were killed and eight 
wounded. It was some days before quiet was restored and the militia 
removed from the grounds of the hospital. The offending students were 
sent away, but "the venerable hospital was henceforth invested by the 
populace with a sort of horror, and became the scene of many a fearful 
resurrectionist legend." 




CHAPTER XVm. 



(1788-1790.) 



Broadway in the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century — Residence Streets 

— Business Streets — Country Seats — Brevoort Estate and Fight 

of Owner — Henry Spingler's Stubbornness. 

Few, if any, of the thousands who cross Broadway at Fourteenth 
street every day have any knowledge or give thought of the position 
this spot held in the long ago as the extreme limit of the city. It was "far 
uptown" in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and to the extreme 
south and southwest of it the ancestors of the present day Knickerbockers 
carried on business and had their dwelling houses. 

The "pleasantest streets for the residence of private and genteel 
families" in the old days were State street, fronting the Battery; Bridge 
street. Bowling Green, Greenwich street, from the Battery to Cortlandt 
street; Broadway, from the Battery to Rector street; Bond street, Hudson 
street. Park Place, Chambers street. Liberty and Cortlandt streets, west of 
Broadway; Dey street, Vesey street, Barclay street, Murray street, Warren 
street, Bleecker street. Prince street, Lafayette Place, Broome street, 
Spring street. Grand street, Franklin street, White street, and Walker 
street. Other streets that were more within the vortex of business, such 
as Beekman, Pearl, Cliff, John and Cherry streets, were also pleasant, but 
were not considered to be in quite so fashionable a quarter of the town. 
Madison street, after its improvement in 1824, was "built up with neat 
and spacious houses, and was a very convenient and respectable street." 

As to business, South street, as now, was occupied by shipping mer- 
chants, but only from the Battery to Roosevelt street, and Front and 
Water street with wholesale grocers and commission merchants. Pearl 
street was "the peculiar and favorite resort of wholesale drygoods mer- 
chants, earthenware dealers, etc.," from Coenties Slip to Peck Slip. The 
auction stores were also here, as well as in Wall street, between Pearl 
and Water streets. Broadway was the "handsomest street and the greatest 
thoroughfare." It ran from "the Battery to Tenth street, v^as three miles 
in length and eighty feet in breadth," and contained similar businesses to 
those of the present day, with four Episcopal churches, a hospital, the 
Masonic Hall, two museums and the City Hall. From the City Hall Park 
to Astor Place was called St. George street, or Great George street, up to 
the close of the last century, and was later commonly spoken of as the 
Middle Road. Maiden Lane, from Broadway to William street, and William 
street, from Liberty street to Beekman street, and Chatham street, from 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 89 

the park eastward, were occupied principally by retail dry and fancy 
goods stores, as was Canal street, west of Broadway. Ferry and Jacob 
streets to-day fulfil the same mission as in 1825, but Water street was the 
fur district, and Broad street that of cabinet and chair makers. 

When the century had attained middle age, people of wealth began 
to build their homes away from the encroachment of business, and Bond, 
Bleecker and Great Jones streets became fashionable centres. Later Wash- 
ington Square became a centre of social activity, instead of what it formerly 
was, a place of death, and one finds among its inhabitants the names of 
people of substance, such as the Alsops, the Rhinelanders, the Leroys, the 
Minturns and the Robinsons. An exclusive set gathered around St. John's 
Church, in Varick street, and here Alexander Hamilton, General Schuyler, 
the Delafields, the Lor'ds, the Lydigs and other notables built substantial 
houses and converted the waste land and sand dunes Into St. John's Park, 
"a spot beautiful to behold." 

But as to Broadway. As was told in a previous chapter, the hotels 
were all at the lower end of this thoroughfare, with the City Hall Park as 
their centre, and there was nothing to speak of above Union Square. Coun- 
try seats of exclusives adorned Sandy Hill, at the upper end of Broadway, 
and solid brownstone and brick mansions clustered around the little park 
at the junction of Bowery Lane and the Middle Road, now Union Square. 
Prom University Place and Thirteenth street an unobstructed view could be 
had of the East River or of the Hudson. Where the Wanamaker store is 
to-day was the Elliot estate, afterward the property of Captain Randall, 
who deeded it to the Sailor's Snug Harbor. Adjoining it to the north was 
the Brevoort estate, the owner of which resisted "with Dutch stubbornness 
a contemplated cutting through of Eleventh street from Broadway to the 
Bowery, and won his fight, leaving Eleventh street ending at Fourth ave- 
nue and beginning again west of Broadway." 

When the farmhouse of Henry Spingler, with its twenty-two acres 
west of the Bowery Road, stood within the limits of the present Union 
Square, an attempt was made, so the writer was told by an old New Yorker, 
to have Broadway meet in a straight course the Bloomingdale Road at the 
north of the square. So much resistance was offered to the scheme by the 
holder of the property that the direction of the thoroughfare was changed 
at Tenth street, and still further deflected at Fourteenth street. 

Broadway was an accident, anyway, according to all authority. "Orig- 
inally it was supposed that the city's main artery of travel would turn to 
the east of the Commons and follow the old Boston Road, and provision 
was made to that end. Business for a long time insisted upon turning to 
the east of the street at City Hall Park, and owners of property were deter- 
mined to keep the west side sacred to residences. But it was not to be so. 
Pearl street ceased to absorb the drygoods trade over half a century ago, and 
when A. T. Stewart spread his drygoods nets on the 'shilling side' of Broad- 
way that settled it." The chronology: 

In 1788 Trinity Church was rebuilt, and the New York Society Library 
was kept in a room in the City Hall. On June 17 the New York State 
Convention, called to consider the adoption of the federal Constitution, met 
at Poughke^?sie. Among the delegates from New York were Hamilton, 



90 CRADLE DAYS OP NEW YORK. 

Jay, R. R. Livingston, Isaac Roosevelt and James Duane. Throush the 
work done by ttiese men at the convention federal union was declared by 
a majority of three against confederation on July 26, 1788, The city did 
not v(^ait until this date to celebrate the establishment of the federal Re- 
public, but three days before it became a fact "held a monster demonstration 
to illustrate emphatically their sentiments." 

September 13, 1788, saw the adoption of the Constitution publicly de- 
clared and the city selected as the seat of the general government. The 
City Hall, in Wall street, was falling into decay, and the exhausted city 
treasury was unable to furnish the means to make the necessary alterations. 
But willing purses were opened by a number of New York's wealthy men, 
and $65,000 was advanced to put it in order. Major L'Enfant, a French 
engineer, was engaged, and under his direction the old building became 
practically a new structure, and was reported ready for the occupation of 
Congress on March 3, 1789, one day before the date set by the new Con- 
stitution for it to meet. The members were dilatory, however, and on 
March 4 "only a handful of them made their appearance, severely testing 
the patience of those who attended." The roads were bad in those days, 
railroads and steamboats were unknown, packets and stages few, "and 
punctuality was regarded as a thing of minor importance." Unable to 
transact business through lack of a quorum, those present issued a circular 
letter to the absentees, imploring them to attend. It was not until April 
6, however, that a quorum was procured, when both houses assembled in 
the Senate Chamber, opened and read the votes, made out two lists, and, the 
House of Representatives withdrawing to its chamber and counting the 
votes, declared George Washington unanimously elected as the country's 
first President, with John Adams as Vice-President. Adams arrived in New 
York on April 21, and was met at the boundary line by Governor Clinton, 
with a military escort, and conducted to Kingsbridge, where he was re- 
ceived by the Senate and House of Representatives, and accompanied to the 
City Hall by several companies of militia. Here he delivered his inaugural 
address. He resided at No. 133 Broadway, the house of John Jay, until 
the completion of his Richmond Hill residence. 

On April 23, 1789, after a triumphal journey of seven days from Mount 
Vernon, Washington arrived at Elizabeth Town. A barge, handsomely 
decorated and rowed by thirteen pilots, commanded by Captain Thomas 
Randall, took him on board, and, escorted by other barges filled with 
eminent personages, a committee of Congress, Chancellor Livingston and 
Recorder Varick, landed him at Murray's Wharf, at the foot of Wall street. 
Salutes were fired and cheers rent the air as Washington stepped ashore, 
and, refusing the use of a carriage which had been provided for him, 
walked with Governor Clinton up Wall street to Pearl street (then Queen), 
and to the Franklin House, on the corner of Cherry street, which had been 
prepared for him as a residence. This house was formerly occupied by 
Samuel Osgood. In the old De Peyster house, in Queen street, opposite 
Cedar, Governor Clinton resided, and here Washington was dined and 
entertained. In the evening the streets were crowded, and demonstra- 
tions were held in his honor. The city was splendidly illuminated, and 
brilliant displays of fireworks took place. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEi'V YORK. 91 

The Federal Hall was uot yet finished, and a week elapsed before 
the arrangements for the inauguration could be completed, so that exactly 
seven days after his arrival, or on Thursday, April 30, 1789, Washington 
was inaugurated the first President of the United States, and with the 
ceremony the "capstone was placed on a superstructure of independence 
whose foundation stones were laid in the blood of patriots." Where the 
colossal bronze statue of Washington stands on the steps of the Sub-Treas- 
ury Building, the first President of the United States took his oath of office. 
"It was one of the most august and interesting spectacles ever exhibited on 
this globe," says a spectator. "It seemed from the number of witnesses 
to be a solemn appeal to heaven and earth at once." After the inauguration 
and the reading of his Inaugural Address in the Senate Chamber, the Presi- 
dent and Congress attended services in St. Paul's Church. A month later 
Mrs. Washington arrived, escorted from Elizabeth Town by the same barge 
and crew of pilots that had accompanied the general. She landed at Peck Slip. 

On May 28 the President gave his first dinner, and the next day Mrs. 
Washington held her first reception, "a simple and unostentatious cere- 
mony." During the first session of Congress the President occupied the 
Cherry street house, the new Presidential mansion, to make room for which 
the old fort had been levelled in 1787, not being completed. Indeed, Con- 
gress had removed when it was completed, and it became the residence 
of Governor Clinton, and was afterward transformed into the Custom 
House. In 1790 Washington occupied the Macomb house, at No. 39 Broad- 
way, his last place of residence in New York. 

Custis, in his "Recollections and Private Memoirs of the Life and 
Character of Washington," says that the chief tendency toward luxury in 
the whole executive establishment was shown in the horses, "which were 
remarkably fine, and were groomed with scrupulous care." In all else "the 
establishment savored of republican simplicity." 

In the evening Washington visited at intervals the theatre in John 
street, the only one in the city at that time. It had been erected during 
the occupation of the British, and was used by the ofiicers for amateur 
theatricals. This theatre "was so small that the whole fabric might easily 
have been placed on the stage of some of our modern theatres," says Custis 
in the recollections and memoirs above noted. "Boxes were set apart for the 
President and Vice-President, and the playbills were inscribed 'Vivat Repub- 
lica.' Among several players of merit was Morris, an associate of Garrick 
in the beginning of his career." An authority says that the national air of 
that day, "Hail, Columbia," composed by a German musician named Fyles 
in compliment to the President, was first played here. 

Before leaving this interesting part of the city's history, let it be 
known that the citizens of New York in the old days, unlike the citizens of 
to-day, were grateful to the person who performed properly any work of the 
municipality. For superintending the enlarging and repairing of the City 
Hall for use of the Congress "Mayor L'Enfant received the thanks of the 
corporation, the freedom of the city, and was offered a lot of ten acres of 
the public land near Provost's lane, or street (now Franklin street), but 
politely declined the same." Twelve years after, on January 26, 1801. 
"Major L'Enfant, who had declined any pecuniary compensation or the 



9« CRADLE DAYS OF NHW YORK. 

ten acres of land, . . now applied for a sum, and the oorporatlon 

awarded him $750, which was refused." 

Broadway was "opened through the Fort to the Battery" in 1789, and 
the market fees were £580. Here are interesting items for real estate men: 
"Ninety-one acres of the Commons sold for £2,409 to T. Buchanan and 
others," and on December 4 "a house and lot, corner of Broad and Wall 
streets, was purchased by the corporation for £450." Richard Varick 
became Mayor on October 14, and continued so until August 24, 1801. Sam- 
uel Jones, afterward Chancellor, assumed the office of Recorder. The 
salary of the Mayor "was commuted for £600 per annum." 

Colonel Richard Varick was made City Recorder after the evacuation of 
the British. He was a popular lawyer of the city, and had won the title 
of colonel in the service of Schuyler in the Northern army. After witness- 
ing the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga and the defeat of Burgoyne, he 
had been aide-de-camp to Benedict Arnold until the discovery of his 
treason, after which he had served Washington as secretary until the close 
of the war. 

The young city was struggling this year to establish a financial credit, 
and as a first move the corporation issued £1,000 of paper money for public 
accommodation, in one, two and three penny bills. Money was also raised 
by lottery, the system for the carrying on of which was given in a previous' 
chapter of this chronology. 

Since the close of the war Indian affairs had been in an unsettled state 
along the Western and Southern frontiers, and on July 15, 1790, twenty- 
eight Creek Indians arrived to confer with Congress regarding a new treaty. 
The Indians, led by a halfbreed named McGillivray, who had been educated 
by his father, a Scotchman, in the best schools of Charleston, complained 
of the encroachments of the whites upon their boundaries. They formed 
an alliance with the Spaniards in Florida, and carried on war with great 
success, severely harassing the whites. Congress at its first session dispatched 
commissioners to the scene of the contest to adjust the boundaries in dis- 
pute, but, while they were well received by McGillivray, they effected 
nothing but a temporary suspension of hostilities. Marinus Willett, dis- 
guised as a trader, was sent the following year by Washington to open new 
negotiations. After sounding the disposition of the natives, he threw off 
his disguise and avowed his errand, with the result that McGillivray con- 
sented to come to New York with selected chiefs and warriors of the nation. 
The Tammany Society, arrayed in Indian costume, met them and escorted 
them to a tavern on the banks of the North River, afterward known as the 
Indian Queen. After six weeks General Knox, the commissioner appointed 
by Washington, negotiated the terms of a treaty with them, which was 
afterward ratified in Federal Hall, in Wall street, on August 13. The visit 
of the Indians closed the official career of New York as the capital city of 
the nation. Shortly after the present capital was selected. 



i 



OHAFTER ZIX. 



(1790-1791.) 



Arrival of Jenny Lind — Narrative of Her Reception and Success — Salary of 

the Mayor in 1790 — Final Location of Seat of Government 

— Plague of Yellow Fever. 

In the crowded Metropolitan Opera House, when the season for 
1908-1909 was opened, the writer was asked by an octogenarian patron 
of music if he could estimate the number of persons present who, on 
September 12, 1850, heard "the greatest singer we have ever had," Jenny 
Lind. Believing ten to be a fair estimate, the writer was greatly aston- 
ished when told by his informant that there were not five individuals 
known to him in that vast assemblage who had listened to the Swedish 
nightingale upon her first appearance in this country. As that occasion 
marked an epoch in the annals of America's musical history, a brief descrip- 
tion of the arrival and reception of this famous queen of song is here 
given. 

In these days, when the fashions change with every season; when the 
phrase "goes like the wind" implies a snail's pace; when the mile-a-minute 
record has been eclipsed, a period of fifty years is as yesterday. And yet 
it is safe to say that there are very few New Yorkers alive to-day who in 
1850 were old enough to appreciate what that welcome to Jenny Lind on 
September 12, 1850, meant. She was called the "Fair-haired Saga-Singer," 
the "Child of Valhall" and "Blue-eyed Vala," in a "Norranic welcome" to 
her, written by F. J. Ottarson, which appeared in The New York Daily 
Tribune of Monday, September 2, 1850, the first verse of which is here 
given : 

Blue-eyed Vala! Bragi's daughter! 

Sped from Cambria's bardic shore, 
Ymer's azure tears of slaughter 

Proudly blush to bear thee o'er; 
On thy great heimskringla going 

Trolla before thy path shall flee; 
Agir's children, homage showing, 

Smooth the throbbings of the sea: 
Himmiglaefa down from heaven 

Bows her cloud invading head, 
Drifa now to slumber given 

Keeps the night watch of the dead; 
Blothughadda, Hefring, Hravnn, 

Hush the surging of the main; 
Bylga, Uthr, Kolga, Drafn, 

Laugh and dimple in thy train. 

93 



94 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Jenny Lind sailed from Liverpool on the steamer Atlantic on August 
24, 1850. For upward of two miles the docks and piers were crowded 
to excess with all classes to witness the departure of their great favorite. 
It was estimated that not fewer than sixty thousand people were assembled. 
Salutes were fired from the batteries and piers, all the vessels in the river 
were dressed in gay flags, and every demonstration imaginable was dis- 
played on the occasion. On the voyage the singer gave her services at a 
concert for the benefit of the sailors and firemen, which netted a large sum. 
On Sunday, September 1, she arrived at the Canal street pier, in this city, 
and found a triumphal arch, hung with flags, a silent greeting to her from 
the people of New York. It was 1 o'clock in the morning when P. T. 
Barnum and Theodore Eisfeldt, who were awaiting her arrival at Quaran- 
tine, heard two guns in the direction of Sandy Hook, and shortly after saw 
the signal flag of a steamer run up at the telegraph station at Clifton. 
Amid the firing of salutes from the Atlantic, they, with Dr. A. Sidney 
Doane, Health Officer of the Port, boarded her, and were greeted by Jenny 
Lind, Jules Benedict, a distinguished composer, and Signor Giovanni Belleti, 
a celebrated basso. Jenny Lind was then about twenty-nine years old, 
slightly robust in face and person, with light blue, joyous eyes and pale 
brown hair. Her companions were men between thirty and thirty-five years 
old; one, Mr. Benedict, a German, and the other a Genoese. As the vessel 
neared the Canal street pier between thirty and forty thousand persons 
were congregated on the adjacent piers and on the roofs. The spars and 
rigging of vessels, the bulkheads along the wharves and every spot com- 
manding a sight were crowded. Noting the respectability of the thousands 
of people assembled, Jenny Lind turned to Mr. Barnum and asked: "Have 
you no poor people in your country? Every one here appears to be well 
dressed." The diva, as she walked down the gangway, passed under tri- 
umphal arches of evergreens and flowers. The first arch fronting the 
water bore the inscription, "Welcome to Jenny Lind," and the second, 
"Jenny Lind, Welcome to America," in large letters around the span. 
"The enthusiasm of the people as the singer took her seat in the carriage 
provided for her by P. T. Barnum has never been surpassed," said the 
writer's opera acquaintance. "The people literally heaped the carriage 
with flowers as she passed along, and bouquets were thrown into the 
windows." Once clear of the throng, the carriage was driven rapidly ta 
the Irving House, at Broadway and Chambers street, where the great flag 
of Sweden and Norway greeted her from the flagstaff. 

After 11 o'clock that night the crowd began to gather again to witness 
the serenade of the Musical Fund Society at midnight. Two hundred musi- 
cians made their appearance at the appointed time, and played national 
airs under the singer's window. A company of firemen, in their red shirts, 
stationed themselves, with their tall lanterns, on Broadway, fronting Jenny 
Lind's apartments, and made a picturesque part of the scene. The singer's 
appearance at the window was the signal for a storm of shouts and cheers 
that has never been equalled. 

On the day following her arrival Jenny Lind received more than 
five hundred of the guests of the Irving House, and, while the demonstra- 
tion was less boisterous than that of Sunday, it was not lacking in warmth. 



CRADLE DAYS 01' NEW VOhh. 95 

"The magnetism of a warm, true and benevolent heart was never more 
strikingly shown than on this occasion," says the writer's acquaintance. 

Invitations, visits and gifts of all kinds were showered upon Jenny 
Lind to an embarrassing degree. Hats, gloves, handkerchiefs, bouquets 
"two feet high;" a riding habit, gloves and whip; a handsome lithograph 
containing her portrait and those of Benedict and Belleti, surrounded by 
an emblematic border, the work of Napoleon Sarony, at that time in Fulton 
street, were a few of the evidences of the esteem in which she was held 
by the people. 

On Thursday, September 5, 1850, a new contract was ratified between 
P. T. Barnum and Jenny Lind, according to which the singer was to receive 
$1,000 a night for one hundred and fifty nights, in addition to which the net 
proceeds of every night were to be divided equally. As an equivalent for 
this offer on the part of P. T. Barnum, Jenny Lind agreed to sing in any 
part of Europe or America, and bound herself to give concerts in New York 
City until the price of tickets should be brought down to the minimum rate 
of $3, "so that the fairest opportunity of hearing shall be afforded the 
public." At Castle Garden on Saturday, September 7, the auction sale of 
tickets for Jenny Lind's first concert was held. Henry H. Leeds was the 
auctioneer, and the first ticket was bought by John N. Genin, a hatter at 
No. 214 Broadway, for $225. Fourteen hundred seats were sold at this 
day's auction, at an average of $6.50 a seat. It was estimated by this 
day's sale that Jenny Lind's manager would realize $30,000 on the first 
concert in America. 

The first rehearsal took place on Monday, September 10, and following 
is the description of an eye-witness: "I arrived too late to hear the "Casta 
Diva,' but heard her singing with Signer Belleti the duo from 'I Turchi in 
Italia.' Before it was over I had almost entered another world. I hardly 
believed that the human voice could accomplish what the Swedish vocalist 
made palpable to my ear. Such perfect execution, such invariably true, 
even correct intonation, such natural expression in all the middle and 
lower register of her voice, I never heard before. The nightingale did not 
pour out its melody with more ease, its notes did not gush forth with more 
freedom and correctness, according to Nature's pitch and scale, than did 
Jenny Lind's according to Art's strictest rules. In the 'Trio Concertante,' 
for two flutes and voice, the orchestra came to a dead stop. They had been 
listening to the vocalist and forgot their parts and all else." 

Another incident occurred during the "Trio" which is worth notice, 
says an authority. "At a pause the bell of a steamboat at the landing 
near by struck thrice, and happened to strike at the exact pauses in her 
song. At first the people thought it was an orchestral effect, so perfectly 
did its clear tones harmonize with the voice of the songstress. The bell 
happened to be exactly in tune and striking the same note with her, and the 
echo at first deceived all the listeners." 

In order to prevent confusion on the night of the concert, Wednesday, 
September 11, 1850, the Inspector of Hacks ordered that carriages enter 
"the large gate at the corner of State street and Whitehall, and pass out 
through the gate in Battery Place, at the head of Greenwich street." At 
the close of the concert the same order was to be preserved. 



96 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

"The first concert is over, and all doubts are at an end," says a New 
York paper of September 12, 1850. "She is the greatest singer we have 
ever heard. When Jenny Lind, clad in white, came forward through the 
orchestra, the vast assembly rose as one man, and nothing could be seen but 
the waving of hands and handkerchiefs, nothing heard but a storm of 
tumultuous cheers. The enthusiasm was at last subdued, and the divine 
songstress, with half trembling womanly modesty blended with childlike 
simplicity, addressed herself to song as the orchestral symphony prepared 
the way for the voice in 'Casta Diva.' If it were possible, we would describe 
the quality of that voice, so pure, so sweet, so fine, so whole and all per- 
vading in its lowest breathings and minutest florituri, as well as in its 
strongest volume. We never heard tones which in their sweetness went so 
far, and the whole air had to take the law of their vibrations. Hers is a 
genuine soprano, reaching the extra high notes with that ease and cer- 
tainty which make each highest one a triumph of expression purely and 
not a physical marvel. All the points one looks for in a mistress of the 
vocal art were eminently hers in 'Casta Diva.' Her whole soul and being 
goes out in her song, which has won the world to Jenny Lind." 

The "National Prize Song," written by Bayard Taylor and set to 
music by Jules Benedict, was sung that night, and was loudly encored. 
After the performance cheer after cheer rent the air, and amid the enthu- 
siasm P. T. Barnum appeared on the stage and announced that Jenny Lind 
had informed him on the Monday preceding her first concert that she' would 
give her share of the receipts to various charities in the city; that as her 
share of the net proceeds of the concert just ended amounted to $10,000, he 
would read a list of her donations, which he did. So ended the night of 
Jenny Lind's first concert in America — the greatest triumph of her life. 
This is a long introduction to the chronology, but it is of interest as show- 
ing the musical enthusiasm of 1850, compared with that of 1909. 

In 1790 the salary of the Mayor was made $700 a year and a census of 
the city ordered taken. On its completion on December 11 it showed 
29,906 persons. The expense entailed in taking it was £155 5s 6d. 

In this year the country was in a ferment regarding a permanent 
location for the seat of government. The Eastern States preferred New 
York, Pennsylvania clamored for its return to Philadelphia, the people 
of New Jersey petitioned for its removal to the shores of the Delaware, 
while the Southern States urged the banks of the Potomac as the central 
location. An amicable arrangement was finally effected, and December, 
1800, was fixed as the date of the opening session of Congress at the capital 
city of Washington, in "the new District of Columbia." 

On August 30 of this year President Washington and his wife left 
New York without ceremony, embarking on their barge at Macomb's Wharf, 
on the North River. It was the last time the general looked upon the 
city. 

"January 2, 1791 — Severe winter. Supplies of wood given to the 
poor." The exports this year from New York to foreign ports amounted to 
$2,505,465. On February 25 "the freedom of the city was awarded to 
Major General Horatio Gates, the hero of Saratoga and the capturer of 
Burgfoyne." 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 97 

The corporation on March 21 ordered a further issue of paper money, 
"and one, two and three penny notes were placed in circulation for city 
change." It also ordered that "the city lamps be 114 feet apart, angu- 
larly," and "that Bedlow's Island be leased out for twenty-eight years, at 
ilO per annum." On October 4 the city was divided into seven wards. 

In the autumn of 1791 yellow fever broke out in the vicinity of Burling 
Slip. "Though soon checked in its ravages by the approach of frost, it 
excited a panic among the inhabitants, and several well-known citizens 
died, among them General Malcolm, of Revolutionary fame." In 1795 it 
again made its appearance, and raged with virulence from August until the 
end of the season. Seven hundred and thirty-five citizens died from its 
effects. The worst visit of the plague was in 1798, when most of the 
churches were closed, and for "many weeks the hearses were undisputed 
possessors of the city's streets." Neighboring States came to the relief 
of the city, and contributions of money, provisions and fuel poured into her. 
Over 2,100 deaths occurred in a population of 55,000. The fever broke 
out with violence at different periods for several years, but the government 
mastered it eventually in new sanitary regulations. 






CHAPTER XX. 



(1791-1794.) 



History of Education in New York — Work of Public School Society — Begin- 
ning of Board of Education — Revival of Public Improve- 
ments — Fresh Water Pond. 

The history of education in New York dates from 1629, when the West 
Indies Company, under whose charge the first Dutch colonists came to the 
city, enacted a law which required the establishment of schools. Four 
years later the first school was opened, and in 1652 the first public school 
came into being, and was established in the City Hall. After the English 
obtained possession of the colony education suffered for a few years because 
of the conflict in languages, the Dutch adhering to the language of their 
mother country. The English established many schools, and church and 
state united in their support. No charge was made directly for tuition. In 
1704 a society for the propagation of the Gospel began the work of establish- 
ing schools in the English language, and in 1732 an act was passed to 
establish a public school in the city. Early in 1748 two schools were 
erected, one by Trinity, in Rector street, and another by the Dutch Reformed 
Church, in what is now Exchange Place. Many private educational institu- 
tions existed, some of them under the jurisdiction of religious bodies and 
depending on them for support. "It may be stated," says an authority, 
"that, so far from retrograding toward barbarism, the people of the colonies 
previous to their independence were securing for their children more educa- 
tion than the people of any other contemporaneous country, and this was 
exceptionally true of New England, whose population was better educated 
then than any other in the world." In educational force New England 
antedated New York by nine years, as the first act of the Plymouth colonists 
was to provide a meeting house for religious purposes and a schoolhouse 
for the children. In 1754 King's College, now Columbia University, was 
founded. 

New York at first encouraged private schools, and when the Board 
of Regents of the University of New York was created, in 1784, its chief 
function for many years was to encourage academies and colleges. It is to 
the credit of that board, however, that it presented to the legislature many 
propositions for the founding of a school system which would tend to the 
establishment of common schools. In 1795 Governor Clinton urged the 
creation of the New England type of common schools, and through the 
legislature a fund was created for the successful carrying out of the scheme. 
In 1797 free schools were established in the State. 

The progress of the free school movement toward New York City was 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 99 

slow, however, and old ideas of teaching only children whose parents were 
affiliated with the different religious bodies caused the education of many 
of them to be neglected. Public-spirited citizens desirous of providing 
means for the education of neglected children called a meeting in 1805 to 
consider the question, and shortly after petitioned the legislature for per- 
mission to incorporate a society having for its object "the establishment 
of a free school for the education of poor children who do not belong to 
or are not provided for by any religious society." On April 9, 1805, the 
petition was granted by the legislature and the society duly incorporated. 

Money was needed for carrying on the project, and was to be sought 
privately, so that it was not until May 19, 1806, that the society saw the 
fulfilment of its benevolent scheme, when apartments were rented in a 
house on what is now Madison street, and the school begun. So anxious 
were the people to take advantage of the work of benevolence for the 
education of their children that it was only a short time after the school's 
establishment when it was overcrowded, and larger quarters were sought. 
Through the generosity of Colonel Henry Rutgers, two lots in Henry street 
were given to the society, and a portion of the excise moneys was set aside 
by the legislature for the erection of a building on them. Pending the 
completion of the Henry street school, the corporation presented to the 
society a building in Chambers street, and donated $500 to put it in repair. 
By 1809 it had become too small to accommodate the pupils, and a new 
school was erected In Chatham street. In 1810 the cornerstone of the 
Henry street building was laid. 

The necessity for more schools became apparent, and in 1811 the 
Trinity corporation gave two lots on the corner of Hudson and Grove streets 
for a third school. In 1815 and 1819 two "African schools" were built, 
one on ground in William street given by the corporation, and the other 
by the Manumission Society on ground in Mulberry street, "which cost 
$2,400." At this time the population of the city was 119,657, and in 
1820 had increased nearly 3 per cent, so that an impetus was given to the 
building of schools. In 1820 the Hudson street school (No. 3) was ready 
to receive pupils, and in 1821 No. 4, in Rivington street, corner of Pitt 
street, was opened. In 1824 No. 5, in Mott street, between Spring and 
Prince, was erected, and No. 6 was occupying the Almshouse. The follow- 
ing year No. 7, in Chryatie street, between Pump and Hester streets, was 
built, and in 1826 No. 8, in Grand street, between Laurens and Wooster 
streets, was opened to pupils. In 18 27 three more schools were opened, one 
(No. 9) at Bloomingdale, one (No. 10) in Duane street, and one (No. 11) in 
Wooster street. 

In 1825 the society that had done so much for the youth of old New 
York changed its name to the Public School Society, with the object of 
eliminating the idea of charity and giving to the citizens that education 
which was considered theirs by right. 

Through the operation of the State law passed in 1805, by which the 
proceeds of 500,000 acres of land were to be accumulated until the income 
should reach the sum of $50,000, which should be applied to the uses 
of the schools of the State, new measures were adopted for extending the 
common school system of the State. In 1819 the fund had reached the 



loo CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

sum of $1,200,000, and in 1822 a change of the constitution made the 
school fund "inviolable and inalienable to other purposes." In 1842 Gov^ 
ernor Seward recommended to the legislature in his message that a law 
be passed extending the common school system of the State to the city, 
resulting in the forming of the Board of Education and the establishment 
of a wise system — the separation of church and state schools so far as the 
bestowal of State moneys went. The existence of the old Public School 
Society ceased in 1853, and all its rights and belongings passed to the Board 
of Education. The chronology: 

The spirit of public improvement began to revive and the city to 
grow apace in 1790. The first progressive step was made in 1791, when 
"Rutgers' right to fresh water pond (the site of Canal street) was pur- 
chased by the corporation for £150." Two hundred years after the Dutch 
traders landed on the island that part of the downtown district bounded 
by Broadway and Centre street and Duane and Worth streets was a lake of 
clear water. The traders gave it the name Kalch, which was afterward 
corrupted into Collect, and later called the Fresh Water Pond. It was the 
fishing ground of the old New Yorker, as has been mentioned in a previous 
chapter. A swamp west of the Collect and stretching away to the 
Hudson River was held in lease by Anthony Rutgers on condition that he 
should pay for it "a moderate quit rent," and that he should "clear it and 
drain it within a year." It was a dangerous quagmire to man and beast, 
and the city officials never dreamed that Rutgers could fulfil the second 
condition of his lease. Rutgers, however, persevered, and drained the 
ground by cutting a ditch from the Collect to the Hudson River. The ditch 
afterward formed itself into a canal, which was the source of much trouble 
to the present day city when improvements were making. Toward the 
close of the eighteenth century, when the city was extending northward, 
the putting of the Collect to some use by the people was considered. Its 
surface had been lowered by the cutting of the drain, and its natural outlet 
had been dried up, leaving it, some thought, an ideal centrepiece for a 
park. Plans with this end in view were frequently proposed, but never 
carried out, and by the year 1810, with the onward march of the city, it 
disappeared. Some trace of it may be found in the cellars in Canal street. 

Property on Broadway in 1791 was not so valuable as it is to-day, for 
"one hundred lots of ground, in Broadway and adjacent streets, in the 
vicinity of the New York Hospital, 25 by 100 feet, were offered for sale at 
i25 per lot." This year yellow fever prevailed in the vicinity of Burling 
Slip. 

March 14, 1792, marks the incorporation of the General Society of 
Mechanics and Tradesmen. The object of this society originally was "the 
relief of decayed and distressed mechanics and tradesmen." In 1821 the 
society erected the Mechanics' Institute in Chambers street, between 
Chatham street and City Hd,ll Place, and a school and library were estab- 
lished for the education of its proteges. Later it erected a building on the 
corner of Broadway and Park Place, part of which was occupied as a 
hotel in 1829. The charter of the society was renewed on April 3, 1811. 

' This year the Tontine Association began the erection of its coffee 
house on the corner of Wall and Water streets. The organization was 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. loi 

founded in 1790 and incorporated in 1794 by a company of merchants for 
the purpose of providing a centre for the mercantile community. "By the 
plan of the association each shareholder selected a nominee, during whose 
life he was to receive his equal proportion of the net proceeds of the 
establishment, but upon whose death his interest reverted to the owners of 
the surviving nominees. The original shares were assignable, and held as 
personal estate, and the whole property was vested in five trustees, who 
were to hold the property until the number of the surviving nominees was 
reduced to seven, when the whole was to be divided among the fortunate 
seven shareholders depending upon them." Two hundred and three shares 
were subscribed for at $200 each, and with this sum a lot of ground 100 
feet square was purchased in the location named above. The building was 
completed in 1794, and the Merchants' Exchange was removed from the 
place it occupied since the Revolution — a dilapidated old building in the 
centre of Broad street, below Pearl — to the new structure. When the old 
Exchange in Wall street was erected in 1825 the building of the Tontine 
Association was put to other uses, and in May, 1855, was demolished to 
make room for another Tontine Building. 

On September 29, 1792, State street, with "a great many other streets 
in the eastern and northern parts of the city, which was increasing with 
amazing rapidity," was laid out, and on October 8 "an apparatus for boring 
water, imported, by Abijah Hammond, Esq., from Boston, at his own ex- 
pense, was presented to the corporation, who ordered an experiment to be 
made on the lot adjoining the City Hall." 

There were 484 licensed taverns in the city in 1793, from which a 
revenue of £721 5s was derived. The fees from Fly, Peck Slip, Catharine, 
Oswego and Hudson markets were £1,343. The Mayor's salary this year was 
£800, an increase of £200 since 1789. On May 27 "a museum was allowed 
in the City Hall," presumably Scudder's Museum, "an immense collection of 
rare and valuable articles of every description." It was afterward trans- 
ferred to a building behind the City Hall, on the north side of the park and 
fronting Chambers street — the Almshouse, which had outlived its usefulness 
in 1816, when the paupers were removed to Bellevue. 

On September 16 "the yellow fever prevailed in Philadelphia and 
caused great alarm in New York. Uncommon precautions were used to 
guard against its importation and to prevent all intercourse with that 
city. The sum of $5,000 was given by the corporation to the distressed 
citizens of Philadelphia, and the Bank of New York loaned them the money 
at 5 per cent." With this scare came another — "a battle off Sandy Hoolc 
between the British frigate Boston and the French frigate Ambuscade, in 
which both were severely crippled." 

On January 20, 1794, "the new almshouse in Chambers street was 
contemplated, and a grant for a lottery to raise £10,000 for that purpose 
was given by the legislature." A few days after the meeting at which 
action on the almshouse was taken the patriotic members of the corporation 
decided to extinguish as much as possible the reminders of royalty in 
street names, and on January 24 "the various parts of a certain street 
called Smith street, William street and King George's street, was ordered 
to be called William stre'jt. Broadway, which was called from Vesey street 



102 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Great George street, was ordered to take the name of Broadway in its whole 
extent, and the continuous streets called Little Dock street, Pearl street, 
Hanover Square and Queen street were ordered to be called Pearl street." 
Shortly after this meeting another attack was made on street names, and 
"Stone street, Duke street and the little alley to Hanover Square was altered 
to Stone street. Verlettenburgh, or Flattenbarrack street, and Garden 
street were altered to Garden street. King street was named Pine, Little 
Queen street called Cedar, Crown street called Liberty, Prince street called 
Rose, and Beaver and Princess street called Beaver." This year "a ferry 
was established to Nutten, or Governor's Island, at 3d each person — but all 
fatigue parties to pass gratis." At this time the fort was being erected 
on the island. The land on which Bellevue Hospital stands was purchased 
for $2,000 in 1794. 




CHAPTER XXI. 



(1794-1795.) 



Origin of Street Names — First Sidewalks Laid — Houses Numbered — "Battle 

Off Sandy Hook" — City Refuge of French Emigres — 

Christ Church Built — First Dispensary. 

Of the thousands of persons engaged in the hunt for fame and for- 
tune in New York, not a stock broker's commisison of them know the origin 
of the names of the streets they travel through six days in the week. 
When a presumably knowing person is asked whence such a street derives its 
name, he wrinkles his brow and answers: "D'ye know, it never struck me to 
find out." That he may know, here are a few the writer has unearthed for 
him: 

Alien street perpetuates the name and fame of Captain William Allen, 
one of the heroes of the War of 1812. He was but twenty-nine years of age 
when he died, but left behind him a brilliant record. 

Ann street^The Christian name of a Dutch burgher's wife, Ann Vieltje. 

Barclay — From the Rev. Henry Barclay, second rector of Trinity. 

Battery Place — From a place where a battery was erected in 1693. 

Bayard street owes its name to Richard Bayard, nephew of Peter 
Stuyvesant, who filled the position of Mayor and occupied other official 
posts in the early history of New York. The Bayard farm was situated be- 
tween Canal and Bleecker streets and between Macdougal street and the 
Bowery. 

Beach street, a corruption of Bache, was named in honor of Paul 
Bache, a son-in-law of Anthony Lispenard. 

Beaver — From the beaver; originally the fur district. The animal 
was an important factor in the fur business in the old days. 

Beekman — From William Beekman, owner of a farm which extended 
north and south of the present street and from Nassau street to the East 
River. 

Bethune street honors the name of the Bethune family, noteworthy 
philanthropists, whose work was of special significance in connection with 
the improvement of the "Five Points." 

Bleecker street is named in honor of Anthony Bleecker, who for 
many years was prominent in the literary world. 

Bowery (Dutch) means a farm. From Peter Stuyvesant's "Bowerie," 
in the neighborhood of Third avenue and Thirteenth street, to the city there 
was a path, naturally called Bowery lane; this was afterward named Bow- 
ery road, and finally the Bowery. 

103 



I04 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Bowling Green — Where the burghers bowled; leased to three of them 
in 1732. 

Bridge — From a bridge that crossed a ditch in Broad street. 

Broad — From the Breede Graft, or Broad Canal, once a ditch. 

Broome street was named after John Broome, Lieutenant Governor of 
New York State in 1804 and a prominent member of many commercial and 
charitable Institutions. 

Canal street was originally a canal forty feet wide, with a promenade 
and trees on each side of it. It carried the water from the old Collect Pond 
to the Hudson River. A stone bridge crossed it at Broadway; this is now 
below the pavement of that busy thoroughfare. 

Cedar — Suggestive of the character of tree growth in the early days. 

Chambers street owes its name to John Chambers, a prominent lawyer 
and one of the officers of Trinity Church. 

Chatham Square, as well as Pitt street, perpetuates the name of 
William Pitt, America's devoted and eloquent friend, the Earl of 
Chatham. 

Cherry street was originally part of a large cherry farm. 

Church street was cut through property belonging to Trinity Church. 

Chrystie street was named after John Chrystie, a brave and skilful 
officer, who heroically gave his life during the War of 1812. 

Cliff— From Dirck Van Clyff, a burgher, on whose former property the 
street is. 

Clinton street recalls the names of James, George and De Witt Clinton, 
whose records in v/ar and in peace are deserving of the highest honors at 
the hand of the State that gave them birth. 

Coenties Slip — A corruption of the name of Conraet ten Eyck, owner 
of land in the vicinity. 

Corlears street brings to mind Jacobus Van Corlears, who offered the 
use of his house for civic purposes to Governor Stuyvesant, and Anthony 
Van Corlears, the trumpeter, who, it is alleged, gave Spuyten Duyvil its 
name when he boasted that he could swim across the troubled waters at 
that place "in spite of the devil." 

Cortlandt — From Oloff Stevenson Cortlandt, an early settler, through 
whose land the street was cut. 

Crosby street was named in honor of William Bedlow Crosby, who had 
inherited the greatest portion of the Seventh ward. He was connected with 
many charitable societies and devoted much of his time to benevolence. 

Delancey street perpetuates the name of Governor James De Lancey, 
the original builder and owner of the house that afterward became 
Fraunces' Tavern and the donor to the city of its first town clock. 

Desbrosses street commemorates the official career of Elias Desbrosses, 
who occupied the positions of Alderman, President of the Chamber of Com- 
merce and warden of Trinity Church. 

Division street derives its name from the fact that it divided the two 
great farms of James De Lancey and Henry Rutgers. 

Duane street owes its name to James Duane, New York's first Mayor 
after the Revolution. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 105 

Eldridge street is a reminder of Lieutenant Joseph C. Eldridge, who 
lost his life In the war of 1812. 

Exchange Place — Where the old Merchants' Exchange was located. 

Ferry— The road that led to the first ferry between New York and 
Brooklyn. 

Frankfort — From the German city — Jacob Leisler's birthplace. The 
street was cut through his estate. 

Franklin street and Franklin Square perpetuate the name of Benjamin 
Franklin. 

Fulton — From Robert Fulton, whose history is, or should be, known 
to every one. 

Gansevoort street was named after Brigadier General Peter Gansevoort, 
who rendered important service in checking Burgoyne, for which he re- 
ceived a vote of thanks from Congress. 

Goerck street and Mangin street were named after Sir James Goerck 
and his son Mangin. 

Gouverneur street was named after General Isaac Gouverneur. 

Great Jones street belongs to the estate of Chief Justice David Jones, 
who was prominent in politics during the latter part of the eighteenth 
century. 

Greene street honors the name of General Nathaniel Greene. 

Greenwich — -The Greenwich Village Road. 

Hanover Square — From the house of Hanover, of which King George 
was a member. 

Hester street was so called by Barnet Rynders in honor of his wife, 
Hester, daughter of Jacob Leisler. 

Jacob — Jacobus Roosevelt, owner of property in the vicinity, referred 
to in another chapter. 

Lewis street honors the name of Morgan Lewis, a stanch patriot who 
fought in the Revolutionary War. 

Liberty — From the name dear to every one. 

Lispenard street formed a part of the farm owned by Anthony Lis- 
penard. 

Ludlow street recalls the name of Gabriel Ludlow, clerk of the House 
of Assembly. 

Macdougal street was named after Alexander Macdougal, a noted "Son 
of Liberty." 

Maiden Lane — Maagde Paatje, or Maiden's Path. Once a path beside 
a stream where the lover and the lass walked and told sweet nothings to 
each other. 

Mercer street recalls the name of Brigadier General Hugh Mercer, who 
advised the "night march" on Princeton, and who, rallying his men on that 
occasion, received his death blow. 

Moore street commemorates the name of Colonel John Moore, a promi- 
nent merchant and official. 

Morris — From Gouverneur Morris. 

Morton street honors the name of John Morton, a well known mer- 
chant of old New York, who advanced large sums of money to the Conti- 
nental Congress. 



io6 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Mott street was named after a successful butcher, Joseph Mott. 

Nassau (Pye-woman's Lane) — From the Prince of Orange and Nassau. 

New — The first street opened by the English. 

Pearl — Pearl shells were found along it when it was a path in the old 
days. 

Perry street was named after Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of Lake 
Erie. 

Pitt street was named after William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. 

Rector — Rector of church property mentioned in another chapter. 

Ridge street was a natural ridge along the top of a hill on James De 
Lancey's farm. The slope from Ridge street to the East River still exists. 

Roosevelt — From Isaac Roosevelt, of pre-Revolutionary fame. 

Rutherford street recalls the name of Colonel John Rutherford, who 
was one of the committee who planned the present system of numeral 
avenues and streets. 

Spring street owes its name to the discovery of a spring in that neigh- 
borhood about the year 1800. 

Stone — Some say the first street in the old town to be paved with 
stone. 

Sullivan street was named after Brigadier General John Sullivan, one 
of the most active officers of the Revolutionary War, who received the per- 
sonal thanks of Washington for his services in Westchester. 

Tinpot Alley — From the Dvitch words Tuyn Paat, which do not mean 
tinpot, but garden road or lane. 

Tryon Row — From Sir William Tryon, the last English Governor to 
bother the colonists. 

Vandam street honors the name of Rip Van Dam, of Dutch descent, 
who in the year 1731 occupied the position of Governor. 

Varick street was cut through the property of Colonel Richard Varick, 
who at one time was Mayor of New York. 

Vesey — From the Rev. W. Vesey, Trinity's first minister. 

Wall street owes its name to the wall of palisades that originally 
marked its path. 

Warren street was named after Sir Peter Warren. 

Water- — From the ground being submerged in the old days. 

Watts street preserves the memory of John Watts, the last city Re- 
corder under English rule. 

Waverley Place received its name in response to a petition frora resi- 
dents of the neighborhood, who were great admirers of Sir Walter Scott's 
novels. 

Whitehall — From the road that led to the White Hall, Stuyvesant's 
residence. 

Willett street was named after Marinus Willett, a Revolutionary hero, 
whose beautiful mansion stood on the site of the present little houses, Nos. 
2 and 4 Willett street. The grounds extended from Willett street down to 
the East River. 

South William street was originally called Mill street, and here the 
first Jewish synagogue was erected. 

William — The first half §f William Beekman's name. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 107 

The first sidewalks were laid in New York City in 1790 on the west 
side of Broadway, from Vesey street to Murray street, "and opposite for the 
same distance along the Bridewell fence." The Bridewell stood at the 
west end of the present City Hall. The pavements were of brick and stone, 
not wide enough to permit two persons to walk abreast. Above Murray 
street Broadway was a succession of hills. Its highest elevation was in 
the vicinity of Anthony street (Worth street), where it rose precipitously 
over a steep hill. It then descended abruptly to the valley at Canal street. 
To a slight degree this elevation and declension may be noticed to-day. 
In 1797 the grade between Duane and Canal streets was established by 
the corporation, though it was some years later before the work was 
completed. An idea of the height of this hill may be had when at 
Leonard street it was necessary to cut through it to a depth of fifteen and 
a half feet, and at Worth street to a depth of nearly twenty-three feet. 
At Canal street it was necessary to raise the land seven inches to meet 
the proposed grade. 

The city was increasing in growth in 1793, and "the corporation, 
realizing the apparent need of street numbers, appointed a committee to 
prepare and report a feasible system." The committee proposed the fol- 
lowing: "To begin at the next house in every street terminating at either 
of the rivers at the intersection of the main street next the river, and 
number all houses below these intersecting streets, beginning with No. 1, 
looking upward in all the main streets and downward in all the slips, and 
so on to the end of the street or slip." This scheme was adopted by the 
corporation. 

Here is an interesting history for the heirs of the New York Liberty 
Boys. The Commons, from the earliest times, had been recognized as the 
property of the city, to be used for public purposes, which history tells us 
all about. The Bridewell, the new jail and the old Provost, "gloomy 
prisons of the victims of Howe and Clinton," were on the northwest portion 
of it. The Sons of Liberty, in 1770, five years prior to the building of the 
Bridewell, which was erected on the site of the first Liberty Pole, pur- 
chased this piece of land on which to erect the second Liberty Pole. In 
1785 Isaac Sears, in whose name it had been purchased, claimed it on their 
behalf, "and offered to release all right and title to it for 8 pounds sterling, 
with lawful interest — the original purchase money." The corporation 
allowed the claim, and "ordered forthwith that the sum be paid." It was 
never paid, so far as any record exists, and — the property is not the city's. 

The explanation of the record under 1793, "Battle fought off Sandy 
Hook," etc., in a previous chapter, is as follows: On June 12 the Am- 
buscade, a French man-of-war, arrived in New York waters from 
Charleston, where she had landed the accredited minister to the United 
States from the new French Republic, Citizen Genet. On July 21 a 
frigate appeared off Sandy Hook, reported by a pilot boat to be the Con- 
corde, a consort of the Ambuscade. A boat's crew of the latter vessel was 
sent out to meet her. As they drew near her a tri-colored flag was hoisted 
by her, and the party, unsuspicious, mounted her decks, to find themselves 
prisoners of war, as the vessel was the British frigate Boston. This act 
of treachery was denounced by every one, and, as the captain of the Boston 



io8 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

in a spirit of bravado challenged the captain of the Ambuscade to meet 
him at sea, the French captain was urged to enter the contest. Escorted 
by a fleet of pilot boats filled with spectators, the Ambuscade encountered 
the Boston off Sandy Hook on July 30. The action resulted in the killing 
of Captain Courtney, of the British vessel. Finding their vessel captain- 
less and disabled, the Britishers sailed away, pursued for some distance 
by the triumphant Ambuscade. As to Citizen Genet, the minister had 
arrived at Charleston on April 9, and his march through the various States 
on his way to New York was triumphal. His mission to the United States 
was to get the support of the government against nations hostile to France. 
On August 8 he was welcomed to New York with the ringing of bells and 
salute of cannon in honor of the success of France, and, being encouraged 
by these manifestations of popular sympathy and in opposition to the wish 
of the government, which desired to remain neutral, he fitted out numer- 
ous privateers from the American ports, manned in many cases by American 
seamen, which in a short time captured nearly fifty British vessels in 
violation of the President's proclamation of neutrality. The conduct of 
the French Minister excited the indignation of the President and Con- 
gress, who ordered the captured prizes to be restored. The minister openly 
justified his conduct, backed up as he was by the powerful Republican 
party. The correspondence between him and the government grew so 
offensive that those who had hitherto defended him, among them Jefferson 
and Randolph, joined with the opposition in demanding his recall. Before 
this letter of recall had reached France the Girondins, Genet's friends, had 
fallen from power, and the Jacobins, succeeding them, conceded the Presi- 
dent's request. 

An old authority says: "The tragedies of the Reign of Terror destroyed 
much of the popular sympathy with the French Republic. America became 
the refuge of the emigres, and this population wrought a visible change in 
the character of the people of New York. French manners, customs, cook- 
ery, furniture, fashions and language came suddenly in vogue, and for a 
season New York seemed transformed into Paris. When the downfall of 
Robespierre recalled the exiles to their homes, and the city was vacated 
as suddenly as it had been filled, it still retained the impress of the in- 
vasion." 

On July 6, 1794, "Corre permitted to sell small drinks on the Battery, 
and to light a few lamps for the public benefit. Also to erect a Chinese 
pagoda, with a flagstaff, northeast ©f the bridge leading to the fort." 

During the latter part of the same year "Christ Church, in Ann street, 
was built, and the street paved and regulated." The structure, origi- 
nally for Presbyterian worship, was built of stone and was 61 by 80 feet 
in dimensions. In 1827 "it was repaired, altered and occupied by the 
Catholics." In 1795 St. Mark's Church, in Stuyvesant street, was built, 
also the Baptist Church in Oliver street. The first church was 100 by 64 
feet, and in 1827 "a spire constructed of brick and plastered was raised 
on its tower, and adds much to the beauty of the edifice." The Oliver 
street church was called the Third Baptist Church. It was rebuilt of stone 
in 1819. The New Alms House in Chambers street was also built this year. 
"'' "Feb. 2, 1795. 622 paupers in the almshouse, of which 102 were born 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. toq 

in New York, 29 in England, 87 in Ireland, 30 in Scotland, 34 in Germany, 
60 in the United States, and 21 others. The whole annual expense of their 
support was £8,319 15s 7d, or lOd each per day, viz., for provisions, 5%d; 
clothing, firewood and medicine, 4^d. There were 73 persons on an aver- 
age in Bridewell, who cost £600 over their earnings." 

On March 16 the freedom of the city was awarded to Alexander 
Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. At a meeting 
of the corporation on April 7, South street was laid out seventy feet wide, 
and "ordered that no water lots further out be granted, or any more build- 
ings erected in that direction." 

The ancestor of all the dispensaries at the present time in New York 
was instituted in 1790, and incorporated on April 8, 1795. It was called 
the New York Dispensary, according to the articles of incorporation. From 
this institution sprung, first, the Northern Dispensary, established in 1829; 
the Eastern Dispensary, founded in 1834; the Demilt Dispensary, erected by 
a munificent bequest of Miss Demilt, from whom it receives its name, and 
many others of late date. 




CHAPTEE XXII. 



(1795.) 

First Newspaper — History of Newspapers Up to 1845 — ^First One-Cent 

Paper — Beginning of the Newsboy — Origin of Newspaper 

Distribution — The Moon Hoax. 

One hundred and eighty-four years ago the first newspaper was 
published in New York City by William Bradford. To what an extent has 
the graveyard of newspaper hopes grown since then! Bradford's paper 
was printed on a small foolscap sheet, with the heading "New York 
Gazette. From Monday, Oct. 16th, to Oct. 23d, 1725." It was a weekly 
publication. During Governor Cosby's administration, when Bradford's 
paper espoused the cause of the government, John Peter Zenger established 
"The New York Weekly Journal," which became the vehicle of those 
opposed to the administration of the testy and despotic Cosby. It was 
because of the suit against Zenger for publishing what the Governor 
claimed to be seditious libels that the freedom of the press was established 
on August 4, 1735, and "the seeds were planted which germinated among 
the people and sprung up, like the sown dragon's teeth, a host of armed 
warriors." Bradford's paper ceased publication in 1742, and the next 
year James Parker, his apprentice, issued a weekly called "The New York 
Gazette and Weekly Postboy." "The Weekly Journal" of Zenger was dis- 
continued in 1752, and on its foundation Hugh Gaine built "The New York 
Mercury." In 1765 three papers were issued in this city — Parker's "New 
York Gazette and Weekly Postboy," but at that time published by John 
Holt; Gaine's "New York Mercury," first issued in 1752, and William 
Weyman's "New York Gazette," published in 1759. 

In November, 1766, Parker resumed the publication of "The Gazette 
and Postboy," and continued it until his death in 1770, while Holt issued 
a new paper, "The New York Journal or General Advertiser," which re- 
mained the organ of the Liberty party until the capture of the city in 
1776, when he was forced to set up his press in Esopus. When that 
village was burned, in 1777, he went to Poughkeepsie, where he con- 
tinued to publish his paper until the close of the war. In the autumn of 
1783 it was again printed in the city of New York, under the title of 
"The Independent Gazette or the New York Journal Revived." Holt died 
in 1784, and the paper was continued by his widow until 1787, when 
Thomas Greenleaf acquired it and merged it into two papers, a weekly, 
"Greenleaf's New York Journal and Patriotic Register," and a daily, "The 
New York Journal and Daily Patriotic Register," afterward "The Argus, or 
Greenleaf's New Daily Advertiser." 

During the possession of the city by the British twQ papers were 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. m 

published. Gaine issued his "Gazette and Mercury" from Hanover Square 
and Rlvington's -Royal Gazette" was published at the corner of Wall and 
Pearl streets. The latter paper had "parlous" times in the autumn of 
1775 however, for King Sears, of Liberty Boys fame, and a party of 
horsemen destroyed its press and carried off the types to New Haven 
Rivington the next year received balm for his wounds by being appointed 
printer to the King. When the patriot cause seemed liliely to succeed 
he changed base by sending in an ingenious way to Washington secret 
information regarding the doings of the British, and thus remained un- 
molested when other loyalists had to flee at the evacuation. In 1786 The 
New York Gazette" was established in Hanover Square by John McLean, 
and was published twice a week until January 1, 1790. when it became a 
daily "It is printed on a large super-royal sheet, and has a very extensive, 
regular and respectable patronage among the various classes of citizens, 
especially the old established and wealthy merchants. The political char- 
ac?e of the editors is of the old anti-democratic school." The celebrated 
papers of Alexander Hamilton, entitled "The Federalist." oyer the signa- 
ture of Camillus, were originally published in "The Gazette in .1788 Ju 
the first quarter of the nineteenth century there were twelve daily papers 
(eight morning and four afternoon), eight semi-weekly and two weekly 
papers printed in New York. The combined circulation of the daily papers 
was 15 000 copies, of the semi-weekly, 8.000, and of the ^veekly. 30.00 . 
Fifteen thousand reams of paper were consumed yearly by these publ i- 
fa tons It an average cost of $4.50 a ream. "The Mercantile Advertiser 
"exclusively devoted to advertisements and to the announcement of the 
news o the day. without note or comment," was published at No. 1 
IZvl street by 4. Butler and George W. Heyer. "The New York Daily 
Idvertiser." established in 1817. "and printed by a Napier printing press 
fvhich the proprietors imported from England at ^^-f expense was 
published in the Exchange. "The National Advocate," established in 8 2. 
and edited by Henry Wheaton, who was succeeded by Mr. Noah in 1818 
was the supporter of the Democratic party. "The New York Enquirer 
Tdited by MM. Noah, was the organ of the Republican party and of 
ttnT political power" "The Journal of Commerce," established in 1827. 
and edited "by a gentleman from Virginia, William H. Maxwell," was 
published from the basement of the Exchange, in Wall street Then there 
were '^he Morning Courier," edited by Messrs. Brooke, Ski 1 man, Lawson 
Tnd Webb, and "The Merchants' Telegraph." edited by John J; Mumford 

The evening papers were "The New York Evening Post," established 
in 1801 and published from No. 49 William street. It was edited by 
WilHamC Bryant and "has long been considered one of the fashionable 
da lyanernoon papers." "The Commercial Advertiser" (daily for the city) 
and "The New York Spectator" (semi-weekly, for the country), publish d 
at NO 48 Pine street and edited by William L. Stone and Francis Hall. 
"Ire amusing and well edited Pape-, and give the earliest literary n- 
nouncements" "The New York American," founded in 1820 and edited 
bv ChaTles King. "Is extensively circulated in the fashionable circles o 
Lciey and is printed on the Napier printing machine, in New street. 
"Te New York Statesman," edited by N. H. Carter and George Prentiss. 



112 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

had "a ship letter office attached to the publication office, where all the 
regular packets for foreign ports have their bags deposited to receive 
letters before sailing. 'The Statesman' is the organ of that extensive 
class of our countrymen in this State that feel strongly disposed to cherish 
the American system of encouraging our own valuable manufacturers." 

Before the second quarter of the nineteenth century had passed 
through the door of ages there were about fifty daily, weekly, semi-weekly 
and monthly journals in New York. The oldest of them was "The Com- 
mercial Advertiser," under the charge of Colonel William L. Stone. Then 
there were "The Evening Post," edited by William Coleman; "The Morn- 
ing Courier" of James Watson Webb, and "The New York Enquirer" of 
Mordecai M. Noah, merged in 1829 into "The Courier and Enquirer"; "The 
Journal of Commerce," begun under the editorship of David Hale in' 1827; 
"The Standard" and "The Spirit of the Times," issued by William T 
Porter. "The New York Mirror," edited by George P. Morris, in which 
N. P. Willis first attracted public attention, and "The Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine," commenced in 1833, were the only literary papers of the city. In 
these Irving, Cooper, Paulding, Bryant, Simms, Fay and a host of other 
literary celebrities made their first essays as candidates for public favor. 
"The dailies were sixpenny journals, and were distributed to regular sub- 
scribers. Newsboys were unknown, and though, upon the occurrence of 
some unusual event, a hundred extra copies were sometimes struck off. 
in view of a possible outside demand, the chances for the sale of these 
were so hazardous that few of the distributors cared to take the trouble 
and responsibility of offering them for sale." 

^ On October 29, 1832, "The New York Globe," a two-cent paper, was 
issued by the elder James Gordon Bennett, who had been for several years 
connected with "The National Advocate" and "The Courier and Enquirer." 
The two-cent paper experiment proved unsuccessful, and just one month 
after its birth it died. In 1833 occurred one of the most important events 
in the history of the city, as well as the whole country —the establish- 
ment of the penny press, an institution which opened the way for cheap 
literature and tended emphatically to make of the people "the greatest 
reading nation of any on the globe." It originated in the brain of Dr. 
Horatio David Sheppard, a young medical student, "rich in hopes, but 
lacking in money," v/ho vainly endeavored to persuade his friends of the 
feasibility of the scheme. His idea that a spicy journal, offered every- 
where by boys at the low price of one cent, would be bought with 
avidity was scouted by all the journalists of the city. He succeeded, how- 
ever, in prevailing upon Horace Greeley and Francis Story, who' were 
establishing a printing office, to get out his paper on a week's credit, but 
with the proviso that he fix the price at two cents a copy. On January 1 
1833, he issued "The Morning Post," his projected paper, in the midst of 
a violent snowstorm, which checked the sale and disheartened the few 
newsboys engaged to sell it. At the end of the first week he met the 
promised payment; the second week his receipts barely covered half his 
expenses, and at the expiration of the third the printers, almost destitute 
of capital and finding no way of getting it from the young publisher 
were compelled to refuse hjm further credit. TUe paper ceased publication' 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 113 

and Dr. Sheppard, discouraged at his ill success, abandoned the ranks of 
journalism and returned to his profession. Another person, Benjamin H. 
Day, who in 1829 had commenced the publication of "The Daily Sentinel," 
took up the idea of the penny paper, and on September 3, 1833, issued 
"The Sun," the first one-cent paper ever published in New York. His 
paper was sneered at and despised by its more pretentious contemporaries, 
but its cheapness commended it to the masses, and its circulation increased 
to eight thousand copies in less than a year. As it was the acknowledged 
organ of no party, and without the subscribers possessed by its powerful 
rivals, the proprietor of the one-cent paper, to insure a healthful circu- 
lation, struck upon the method first projected by Dr. Sheppard of hiring 
boys to work for him at $2 a week. Each boy was dispatched with 125 
copies of the paper to different parts of the city, and was to cry the paper 
for sale to the passersby. In the course of two or three hours the papers 
were sold, and the boys came back for a fresh supply, which was given 
to them at a reduced rate. Thus originated the race of newsboys in New 
York, now naturalized in almost every city of the Union. Other publishers, 
seeing the success achieved by Benjamin H. Day, published an extra 
edition of their papers for the newsboys, while, by way of exchange, several 
of the regular distributors of these, finding that the profits of the boys 
amounted to more than their small weekly salaries, set to work to procure 
subscribers to "The Sun," and to establish newspaper routes as private 
speculations. And thus were established some of our large newspaper 
distributing companies. 

"^ An authority says: "The most curious fact in the history of this first 
penny paper was the publication of the celebrated 'Moon Hoax,' or dis- 
coveries in the moon, written by Richard Adams Locke, at that time Editor 
of 'The Sun.' It purported to be an account of Sir John P. W. Herschel's 
discoveries at the Cape of Good Hope, taken from 'The Supplement of The 
Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' and was written with every appearance 
of consistency. To disarm suspicion a scientific description of an ingen- 
iously invented telescope by which these discoveries had been made was 
given. The author then proceeded to delineate the geographical features 
and the inhabitants of the moon with such graphic power and show of 
probability that the gravest journals swallowed the bait and took the ac- 
count as an historical fact, though they were piqued at the lucky chance 
which had thrown the earliest intelligence of so important a discovery into 
the hands of the despised penny paper. One journal, on the day after the 
story of the lunar discoveries appeared in 'The Sun,' gravely assured its 
readers that it had also received the account by the same mail, but through 
want of suflicient space was unable to publish it. The article was copied and 
commented on throughout the country by other papers, and Sir John Her- 
schel was everywhere extolled as the greatest discoverer of the age. En- 
thusiasts even began to speculate on the possibility of opening telegraphic 
communication with their newly described neighbors. When the hoax was 
discovered universal merriment was excited, but the offence was not soon 
forgotten or forgiven by the cheated contemporaries of the paper which had 
issued the canard," In 1838 Day disposed of his paper to Moses Y, BeacU 
for ?38,000. 



114 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



A second one-cent paper, "The Transcript," was published in 1834, and 
continued until 1839. Then another, "The Moon," was issued, which sur- 
vived two or three years. A fourth one, "The Morning Star," soon after 
made its appearance, as did "The Morning Dispatch," published in 1839 by 
Day, owner of the first one-cent paper. They proved failures. 

Some of the oldtime journalists made their debut during this period. 
On March 22, 1834, Horace Greeley, Jonas Winchester and E. Sibbett began 
the publication of "The New Yorker," printed at first on a large folio sheet 
and afterward in two forms, folio and quarto, the former at $2 and the 
latter at $3 a year. Park Benjamin was a contributor to its columns, and 
in 1840 Henry J. Raymond, afterward editor of "The New York Times," 
then a recent graduate of Burlington College, Vt., began his editorial career 
on it at a salary of $8 a week. On May 6, 1835, "The New York Herald" 
made its appearance as a two-cent paper, under the auspices of James Gor- 
don Bennett, father of the present ov/ner, and Anderson & Smith, printers 
in Ann street. A few months after its publication the office and printing 
establishment were destroyed by fire, Anderson & Smith withdrew from the 
firm, leaving the paper in the control of the elder Bennett. "Th New 
York Express" was issued in June of the same year by James and Erastus 
Brooks, and on April 10, 1841, "The Tribune" appeared, edited by Horace 
Greeley, with the assistance of Henry J. Raymond. It was a daily one-cent 
paper. The foregoing may be called the senior papers of New York. 




CHAPTER XXni. 



1795-1796.) 



Bowling Green — Origin of "Gotham" — "The New York Gazetteer" — Cost 

of City Lighting — Beginning of Gas Companies — 

Burning of New Treaty. 

In March, 1732, it was resolved "That this corporation will lease a piece 
of land lying at the lower end of Broadway, fronting to the Fort, to some 
of the inhabitants of the said Broadway, in order to be inclosed to make a 
bov.iing green thereof, with walks therein, for the beauty and ornament of 
said street, as well as for the recreation and delight of the inhabitants of 
the city, leaving the street on each side thereof fifty feet in breadth." John 
Chambers, Peter Bayard and Peter Jay, lovers of sport, in accordance with 
this resolution hired the ground for a term of eleven years, paying as rent 
therefor one peppercorn a year, and prepared it for the game of bowls. After 
their lease expired John Chambers, Colonel Phillipse and John Roosevelt 
became the lessees for another eleven years, paying 20 shillings a year for 
the privilege of playing the game. 

"Gotham" was satirically applied by Washington Irving in 1807 to the 
city of New York in one of the "Salmagundi" papers, entitled "Chronicles of 
the Renowned and Ancient City of Gotham," most likely because of the 
simplicity of its inhabitants in the old days. He took the appellation from 
a parish of Nottinghamshire, England, called Gotham, whose inhabitants 
were said to have simulated simplicity to avert a King's anger. 

'The prettiest street in all New York," at one time Rivington street, 
was not named after "the only London bookseller in America," as James 
Rivington styled himself in 1760. He had acquired wealth as a publisher in 
Paternoster Row, London, but it is said the Newmarket bookmakers induced 
him to play too many "tips," with the result that he looked on the new world 
as the only place to retrieve his losses. Connected with his bookshop in Han- 
over Square in 1772 was a printing office, whence a year later he issued "The 
New York Gazetteer." In 1775 he said his paper was "printed at his open and 
uninfluenced press fronting Hanover Square," though he retained the royal 
arms on the title of his paper when other printers were removing them. 
After the attack on his shop by the patriots in 1775 for his zeal as a Tory, 
he went to England, and on his return in 1777 began again the issue of his 
paper, with the sub-title "Published at New York by James Rivington, 
Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty." He died in 1802, at No. 156 
Pearl street. 

It has been said that the power of comparison gives definiteness and 



ii6 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

clearness to thought, and that we never can understand anything well but 
by comparing it with something else. In accordance with this the following 
will furnish an object lesson: 

In 1770 it was estimated that the cost of lamps, lighting the city, etc., 
was £760 a year. In 1791 the city lamps were ordered to be 114 feet apart, 
angularly. In 1806 the cost of lighting each lamp was $11 a year. There 
were 1,556 public lamps and 97 private lamps in the city in 1809, which cost 
to light $9.50 each for eight months. In the summer of 1812 efforts were 
made to substitute something better than oil, with which the streets had 
been dimly lighted, and an experiment was made with gaslight in the park. 
Nothing definite resulted, however, though four years afterward, on June 
18 and November 18, 1816, a "long, learned and favorable report on the 
subject o-f gaslight was made by a committee of the corporation." On Jan- 
uary 27, 1817, "another detailed report was made in favor of lighting the 
city with gas, from the trial made under the inspection of Dr. Hare, which 
cost $5,927.25 (including $1,400 for seven months of his salary). The ex- 
periments were made in an old building near the east corner of the City 
Hall, and temporary tin pipes were laid through Chatham street and 
Broadway as far as Dey street, and a few store windows lighted up.«. The 
light was admired, but the city authorities shrank from the expense of lay- 
ing the requisite iron pipes, etc., which it was estimated would cost for the 
whole city several hundred thousand dollars." In April, 18 23, the corpora- 
tion granted to the New York Gas Company "the exclusive privilege for 
thirty years of laying castiron gas pipes in the streets south of Grand 
street, and reserved the privilege of using the gas for the street lamps, on 
the same terms and cost as oil." On May 11, 1825, the company began the 
proposed improvement by laying gas pipes in Broadway, on both sides of 
the street, from Canal street to the Battery. From these they were gradually 
extended over the southern part of the island, though for years the city pre- 
sented a checkered appearance, with one block dimly lighted by the ancient 
oil lamps and the next brilliantly illuminated from the works of the new 
gas company. In 1830 the improvement was extended to the northern part 
of the island by the incorporation of the Manhattan Gas Light Company, 
with a capital of $500,000, for the purpose of supplying the upper part of 
the city not included within the limits of the New York Company. 

When gas was introduced into the city below Canal street opposition 
arose to the innovation. Many of the citizens were afraid to have it in or 
near their dwellings. All sorts of catastrophes were predicted. Had it not 
been for the sterling qualities possessed by Samuel Leggett, who introducd 
gas into his own residence in Franklin Square, and invited the public to 
witness the utility of the new source of light and comfort, its introduction 
would have been delayed longer. Leggett founded and was president of 
the first gas company in New York in 1823. 

It would not be proper to leave this subject without giving the opinion 
of an authority on the gas works as a "place of interest, an object of great 
importance, and highly curious in all its details." 

"The manner in which Broadway and many of the public buildings and 
shops in the principal streets are now lighted with gas," says the record of 
1829, "and the effect it has upon the eye of a stranger is as novel as it is 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 117 

gratifying, and forms one of the principal modern improvements, especially 
when contrasted with the first attempt at lighting the streets made by our 
ancestors in 1697. 

"The establishment for the making of gas is one of the largest edifices 
in the city, and is situated in Rhynder street, corner of Hester, near the 
east part of Canal street. The gas, formed from oil, is conducted into the 
great reservoirs, or gasometers, which contain each 5,000 barrels, and are 
equal in size to a large brewer's vat, being 50 paces in circumference and 
20 feet in depth. The gas is measured by a curious machine called a meter, 
and passes out into all the principal streets south of Grand street through 
pipes of cast iron, of various sizes, from 6-inch to 2-inch bore, and by 
lateral pipes into the private houses, where the company pipes end, and the 
whole interior fitting is done at the expense of the person using the gas. 
The company supplies the public with oil gas by the meter only. The charge 
for every cubic foot registered is $1. The meter is a patent machine made in 
London, and is sold or rented to each customer, as they may prefer, the cost 
being from $16 up, according to size." For a ten light meter in the old days 
44 cents a quarter was charged; fifteen light, 62% cents; thirty light, $1.50. 
Those purchasing meters from the company kept them in repair at their 
own cost. Here is a scale showing the comparative quantity of light given 
out by each burner generally: The one jet burner gave a light equal to 
one mould candle; the two jet burner, 2 1-12 mould candles; the three, 4 2-3. 
A. ten hole argand gave a light equal to ten mould candles. And here is an 
interesting end of the record: "By regulating the cock, the quantity of 
light given out, and, consequently, the gas consumed by each burner, may 
be reduced at pleasure. The comparative cost of the oil gaslight is consid- 
erably less than the cost of that produced from mould candles or from oil 
lamps. But the cleanliness, the beauty and the convenience of the gas 
over any other light is the principal cause of its being preferred, without 
reference to expense." 

In 1829 the company had laid fifteen miles of castiron pipes in the 
principal business streets. The pipes were imported from England, and 
"were subjected to a severe proof to test their quality before being used." 

On April 20, 1795, "Rickett's Amphitheatre offered to exhibit one 
evening for the benefit of the poor, to purchase firewood, which was accepted 
by the corporation, and the sum of $340 was collected on the occasion." 
Bakers this year were allowed a profit of 12 shillings on one hundredweight 
of flour, and the Powles Hook ferry was leased for i250 a year. Hoboken 
ferry was not so prosperous, as it leased for £95 a year. 

In the summer of 1795 John Jay, the newly elected Federal Governor 
of New York, arrived from England with a new treaty. Jay was in Eng- 
land when he received the nomination for Governor, and the opposition in 
his absence used all kinds of arguments to excite distrust in him. At the 
April election he was elected Governor by a large majority over the opposing 
candidate, Robert Yates, and Stephen Van Rensselaer was elected Lieutenant 
Governor. Both branches of the legislature were also carried by the Feder- 
alists. After his arrival from England Jay was welcomed heartily by the 
people; all the bells in the city mingled with the roar of cannon. He was 
conducted to his house from the wharf by an excited multitude, eager to 



ii8 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

testify their gratitude for his successful mission of peace. The new treaty 
bound the United States to a strict neutrality in all wars between England 
and other nations, and was denounced by the anti-Federalist or Republican 
party "as a shameful repudiation of the obligations due by the country to 
France," and efforts were r,sed to induce the President to refuse its rati- 
fication. 

No sooner had the provisions of the new treaty become public than 
an anonymous handbill appeared in the streets of New York, calling on the 
citizens to meet in front of the City Hall on July 18 to express their oppo- 
sition to the treaty. "On the day appointed," says the record, "an immense 
concourse assembled in front of the City Hall. Aaron Burr and Brockholst 
Livingston, the brother-in-law of Jay, who, with Chancellor Livingston and 
the rest of that influential family, had espoused the cause of the Republican 
party, appeared as the leaders of the opposition. Alexander Hamilton and 
Richard Varick stood for the Federalists and the treaty. The latter party 
succeeded in electing a chairman from among their number, and then pro- 
posed to adjourn. Motions and counter motions were made, and a scene of 
violence ensued. Hamilton mounted the stoop of an old Dutch house which 
stood on the corner of Wall and Broad streets, with its gable end to the 
street, and attempted to speak in defence of the treaty, when he was rudely 
thrown from his place and dragged through the streets by the excited mul- 
titude. The tumult soon increased to such a degree that business became 
out of the question. When a proposition was made by some one from among 
the mass to adjourn to the Bowling Green and burn the treaty, a thunder of 
'Ayes!' shook the watchhouse on the south corner of Broad and Wall streets 
to its foundation, and to the Bowling Green they adjourned, shouting and 
huzzaing, where the treaty was burned to the sound of the 'Carmagnole,' 
beneath the folds of the French and American colors." On August 15, with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, the treaty was signed by the Presi- 
dent, and its immediate effect was to avert a war from which the United 
States could have derived no possible advantage. ^ 

While the city was in political throes a British frigate entered New 
York Harbor with several cases of yellow fever on board. The disease spread 
rapidly. Here is the record: "The yellow fever prevailed to an alarming 
degree in this city during the summer and fall. Seven hundred and thirty- 
two persons died with it during the season." On October 6, "$7,000 remitted 
from the citizens of Philadelphia by Matthew Clarkson, Mayor, for the relief 
of the distressed citizens of New York, and also $505.25 from the citizens 
of Southwark." 

The year 1795 is memorable for the completion of the first edifice of 
the New York Society Library, which stood on the corner of Cedar and 
Nassau streets, on a lot thirty feet wide and of irregular depth. The struc- 
ture was imposing. It was built of brownstone, with three-quarter Corin- 
thian columns, resting on a projecting basement, with ornamental iron 
balustrades forming a balcony. The membership of the society at this time 
was nearly one thousand, and comprised leading citizens of all occupations. 
In 1836, owing to the advancing tide of commerce, the society moved to 
Broadway and Leonard street. 



A 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



(17S6-1797.) 



Theatres and Theatricals in New York from 1732 — Introduction of Italian 

Opera — Old City's Opinion of the Derivation of the 

Word Drama — Theatre Receipts in 1827. 

The history of the New York stage dates back to September, 1732, 
when a company of professional actors arrived from London and secured 
a room in a building near the junction of Pearl street and Maiden Lane, 
capable of seating four hundred persons. With a slight intermission they 
continued their performances here until February, 1734, when the com- 
pany was disbanded. Some of their productions were "Cato: A Tragedy," 
and "The Recruiting Officer," "The Beaux' Strategem," and "The Busy^ 
body," comedies. Individuals and minor companies entertained the old 
citizens up to the winter of 1749, when a company crossed the Atlantic 
and began a season of eight months' entertainment. 

On the estate of Rip Van Dam the first Nassau Street Theatre was 
built. It stood between John street and Maiden Lane, a two-story house, 
with high gables. The opening bill, on March 5, 1750, was "Richard III," 
with Thomas Kean as Richard. It was in this house on December 21, 1751, 
that "Othello" was played for the first time in America. September 17, 
1753, in a theatre on the east side of Nassau street, Lewis Hallam, who 
had, according to the record, been refused a license in the early part of 
the year to perform in New York, received permission to present the "Con- 
scious Lovers" and "Damon and Phillida" in the theatre mentioned. Here 
also "Romeo and Juliet," on January 28, 1754, had its first representation. 

The corporation of the old city seemed to look with disfavor on the- 
atricals, as the record says they refused permission to another company 
to open a new playhouse erected on Cruger's Wharf, between Old and 
Coenties slips, by David Douglass, and known as David Douglass's Theatre. 
The corporation relented, however, and the theatre was opened on Decem- 
ber 28, 1758, with the tragedy of "Jane Shore." In 1759 the company left 
New York on tour, and on its return in 1761 occupied a new theatre on 
the corner of what is now Nassau and Beekman streets. "Henry IV" was 
given for the first time on the American stage here, and "Hamlet" for the 
first time in New York. 

On the north side of John street, near Broadway, on December 7, 1767, 
a new playhouse was opened. Seasons of entertainment were given in it 
up to October 24, 1774, when Congress recommended "that all places of 
public amusement should be closed." A short list of the plays given will 

119 



120 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

be interesting to the student of old New York affairs, as indicating the 
tastes of the theatregoers then: "Richard III," "Hamlet," "Cymbeline," 
"Romeo and Juliet," "King Lear," "The Merchant of Venice," "Macbeth," 
"Cato," "She Stoops to Conquer," "The Beggar's Opera" and "The Irish 
Widow." 

During the occupation of the city by the British in 177 7 entertain- 
ments were given in this house by the British officers. A play written by 
Major Andre in 1781 was also produced here. 

Here is something interesting for those who "want to see a man" be- 
tween the acts of plays in New York theatres to-day: 

"It is customary to have a dramshop in the neighborhood of theatres 
(as is the case in this city), where the audience, exhausted by attention to 
the performance, may recruit their spirits by taking a glass of gin, or some- 
thing equally exhilarating, between the acts; and as it often happens that 
immediately upon drinking a dram the person emits a sound similar to the 
letter 'a,' the dram and the sound have been united, and thus dram-a, or 
drama, is found." The foregoing is from an advertisement in Gaine's paper. 
The last performance occurred in the John Street Theatre on January 
13, 1798. ^ 

' Rickett's Amphitheatre was situated in Greenwich street, near the 
Battery, and in 1796 was known as the Pantheon. "Venice Preserved" was 
the opening production in this year, with Thomas Abthorpe Cooper as 
Pierre. 

On January 29, 1798, the Park Theatre, situated on what is now the 
site of the Syndicate Building, in Park Row, was opened. It had a frontage 
of 80 feet and a depth of 165 feet. The plan for its construction was fur- 
nished by the builder and engineer of the London Thames tunnel, Mark 
Isambard Brunei. Managerial quarrels hindered the work on the structure 
between the time it was designed, in 1793, and the year building operations 
began, in 1795. On the opening night it was in an unfinished state. "All 
in a Bustle; or, The New House," was the curtain raiser, and "As You Like 
It" and a musical entertainment called "The Purse; or, Ameripan Tar," 
completed the bill. "The doors will be opened at five, and the curtain 
drawn at a quarter past six," says the programme. "Ladies and gentlemen 
are requested to be particular in sending servants early to keep boxes," and 
"will please direct their servants to sit down with their horses' heads to- 
ward the New Brick Meeting, and take up with their horses' heads toward 
Broadway." For the first performance boxes were 8 shillings, the pit 
6 shillings and the gallery 4 shillings." Four nights were given to per- 
formances, and the first night's receipts were $1,232, with many unable to 
get in. The regular admission price was: Gallery, 25 cents; pit, 50 cents, 
and box, $1. In the summer of 1798 the house was in complete order and 
beautifully furnished, says the record. For a company of twenty-six persons 
and an orchestra of fourteen, the salary list of the Park Theatre amounted 
to $1,161 weekly. Food for thought in this when compared with the salaries 
of to-day m our metropolitan theatres. Indeed, in 1798 the highest salary 
paid in America was $100 a week. 

The Park Theatre continued as the playhouse of New York, of course 
with varying fortunes, until May 25, 1820, when, after tfoe performa^ic^ 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 121 

of the "Siege of Tripoli," for the benefit of Major Noah, the theatre was 
discovered to be on fire. It was entirely consumed, the actors losing their 
effects. The proprietors at this time were John Jacob Astor and John K. 
Beekman. 

After the fire building operations were immediately begun, and on 
September 1, 1821, the New Park Theatre rose from the ruins of the old 
one. It was 165 feet deep, running through to the present Theatre Alley, 
and 80 feet on Park Row. Junius Brutus Booth made his New York debut 
here on October 5, 1821, as Richard III, and Charles Mathews, the elder, 
played Goldfinch, in "The Road to Ruin," on his first appearance in New 
York, on November 22, 1822. When Edmund Kean — who, during his first 
engagement in New York, had excited the ire of theatregoers by his con- 
vivial habits and appearing on the stage in an unfit condition — after an 
absence of four years, reappeared in New York on November 14, 1825, as 
Richard III at the Park Theatre, he was repaid for his previous misconduct 
by "such a powerful and unexpected burst of catcalls and shower of hisses 
that he for a moment quailed. After standing upon the stage fully a quarter 
of an hour he was compelled to retire. He made a second attempt, but was 
again driven indignantly off. Notwithstanding the uproar, it was decreed 
in the greenroom that the play should go on. And on it went, 'Richard 
III' in pantomime." On January 4, 1826, Kean appeared at the Park The- 
atre as King Lear, "and was loudly and flatteringly received by every part 
of the house, with cries of 'Bravo, Kean!' " 

"* Italian opera was first introduced to America in this theatre on No- 
vember 29, 1825. The orchestra consisted of twenty-five instruments — 
seven violins, two tenors, two bassos, three clarinets, two horns, two trum- 
pets, a bassoon, a kettledrum and a piano. The opera was "The Barber of 
Seville," and admission prices were advanced during its presentation. 
"Semiramide" was also first heard in this country at the Park Theatre on 
April 25, 1826. 

On December 16, 1848, the new theatre was destroyed by fire. 

The first summer theatre in New York was Mount Vernon Garden, at 
the northwest corner of Broadway and Leonard street. Performances were 
carried on by a portion of the Park Theatre company, who were disengaged 
during the summer. It was opened on July 19, 1800, with a light comedy. 
Tickets of admission were 4 shillings, and the performances began at 7 
p. m. sharp. Another theatre, though not of the summer variety, was the 
Grove Theatre, which stood in what is now Madison street, east of Cathe- 
rine, and was opened on March 9, 1804. T. Abthorpe Cooper played there, 
and "The Honeymoon" had its initial presentation in America at this 
house on May 29, 1805. 

The New York Theatre, in the Bowery, or the Bowery Theatre, as it is 
known to most New Yorkers, was opened for theatrical representations on 
October 16, 1826, under the management of Charles Gilfert. The founda- 
tion stone was laid by Philip Hone, the Mayor of the city, in May of that 
year. "As one of the modern public ornaments of this city," said Mayor 
Hone in his address, "this building stands pre-eminent." As the old Bowery 
Theatre still stands, though lustreless and forgotten by most persons of the 
present day, it will not be out of place to describe it as it was in 1826: 



122 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

"The building has a front on the Bowery of 75 feet, is 175 feet deep 
and 50 feet high to the cornice; thirty-three feet of the front in the centre 
recedes sixteen feet, the entablature of which is supported by two Grecian 
Doric columns and two antte of corresponding proportions; the diameter 
of the columns is 5 feet, their height 30 feet and the height of the entabla- 
ture 10 feet. The whole front, and all its ornaments except the cornice, 
is finished with cement on hard brick in imitation of marble a little shaded. 
The entire front is the boldest execution of the Doric order in the United 
States, and is also more exactly according to the true spirit and style of 
the best Grecian examples in the detail than any other specimens yet exe- 
cuted. Had there been six columns in front, as was originally intended by 
the architect, but prevented by a wish on the part of the proprietors for 
greater economy of room, this would unquestionably have been the most 
perfect as well as the boldest specimen of Grecian Doric in this country. 
The basement and walls are massive, and constructed of bluestone and 
brick." 

The interior of the theatre in 1826 vv^as elegant, chaste and classical 
in its design, the groundwork being of a light color, with ornaments in 
the Grecian style. The scenery M^as painted by Messrs. Coyle, Inman and 
others, and was considered beautiful. "The whole is lighted with gas," 
said an authority, "in the most brilliant and effective manner, and by means 
of globular ground glass shades the light is softened and the effect is highly 
agreeable to the eye." The prices of admission in the old days were: 
Boxes, 75 cents; pit, 37^ cents, and gallery, 25 cents. 

It was in this theatre that Signorina Garcia performed in Italian and 
English opera, and received what was then considered an enormous salary, 
$600 a night. The prices were doubled on the nights of her appearance, 
but the authority says "the house was filled and the receipts fully justified 
the manager's liberality, and established the fashionable character of the 
house." 

In the spring of 1827 the French opera dancers, Mme. Hutin, M. and 
Mme. Achille, Mile. Celeste, Mile. Heloise, M. Barbiere and others were 
introduced to the American public and drew crowded houses. Many Eng- 
lish performers were brought forward on the boards of the old Bowery — 
Messrs. Holland, Chapman, De Camp and Pearman and Mesdames George 
and Rock and Mr. and Mrs. Young. Our own Forrest made his appearance 
there. To-day the old playhouse is lost in the shadow cast by the Third 
avenue elevated road,' and characters Hebraic on its billboard tell what 
goes on within. Memories of "The Seven Charmed Bullets" and "Mazeppa" 
cluster around it for the early day New York theatregoer, but they are 
fleeting, as are most memories of New York of the last century. ^ 

The La Fayette Theatre, in Laurens street (now West Broadv/ay), near 
Canal, was first opened in 1824 as a circus and riding school, and on No- 
vember 6, 1825, was occupied for the Grand Canal Ball, "and fitted up for 
that occasion with great splendor." The Grand Canal Ball was the con- 
cluding festivity incident to the opening of the Erie Canal and given by 
the olficers of the militia. Melodramas and other productions were pre- 
sented in the La Fayette at low prices of admission — 25 to 75 cents. Charles 
Sandford was the proprietor, and his manager was Mr. Burroughs, the 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 123 

principal performers being Mrs. Sandford, Mrs. Duff, Miss Riddle, Mr, Bur- 
roughs. Mr. Keene, a vocalist; Mr. Maywood and Mr. Thayer. The building 
covered a space 80 by 200 feet. A Catholic church is on the site now. 

Another place of amusement in the city was The Theatre, in Chatham 
street. From a small building fitted up in 1823 for summer performances, 
with a large awning to cover the spectators, was evolved in 1824 a neat and 
commodious brick building. It was opened on May 10 "by a poetical prize 
address." "The entrance to the theatre was forbidding in appearance, being 
from Chatham street through a long, narrow entry leading into an open 
garden ornamented with shrubbery and a fountain, but in the rear of the 
buildings on the street was a large, plain edifice, occupying the whole 
interior of the block and quite imposing in appearance." 

The Circus was in Broadway, between Canal and Grand streets, in 
1828. It was a large wooden building, occasionally occupied as a theatre 
and for equestrian performances, principally during the warm season. 

In the fall of 1826, "in a conspicuous situation in the eastern part of 
the city, and quite remote from the populous part of New York." Mount 
Pitt Circus was erected in Grand street. The record says it was finished 
and occupied before the public was generally aware of its existence. When 
the La Fayette was discontinued for circus use its company exhibited at the 
Mount Pitt. 

Here is an interesting paragraph for theatre managers: 

"The amount of receipts of all the various places of recreation in this 
city (1827), such as theatres, circuses and gardens, may be estimated, from 
the best data, as rather over than under $500,000 per annum, which is 
far more encouragement in theatricals, in regard to our population, than is 
given by any other city of equal size in Europe or America. In the busiest 
seasons of the year New York has within it from five to ten thousand 
strangers, all eager for amusement, and rushing to the various spectacles 
with avidity. This, together with the moderate prices and the increased 
population of the city, explains the cause of the liberal encouragement 
received by all the places of amusement; and it is certainly due to the 
various managers to state that they are extremely zealous in acquiring, 
and liberal in remunerating, the best talent of English and American per- 
formers. No city in the United States supports a greater number or variety 
of public exhibitions; and merit and originality in every department are 
sure to be well rewarded." 



CHAPTER XXV. 



(1786.) 

Opinion of an English Actor in 1797 of New York — The Potter's Field — 

State Prison at Greenwich — First Superintendent of 

Public Works — Treadmill, 

As we are now within four years of the opening of the nineteenth 
century, it will not be inopportune to quote the opinion of an English 
actor, John Bernard, regarding New York in 1797. In "Retrospections of 
America," published by Harper & Bros, in 18S6, from manuscript notes in 
the possession of Mrs. Bernard, said: "It resembled a large fair or a 
cluster of inns rather than an abiding city, all its inhabitants looking like 
birds of passage, with the exception of the few aboriginal Dutch who had 
not been swept away by the European flood to their yellow brick dwellings 
on the banks of the Hudson. But these kept themselves distinct even 
from the other natives, regarding the entire body as a variety of Arabs who 
had been expelled from Europe for their robberies. They maintained their 
houses like fortifications, their doors and windows were closed and barred, 
their garden walls armed with glass bottles in a bed of mortar, and they 
sitting on their 'stoops' so dilated as not to leave room for a cat to pass, 
and rolling waves of smoke from their melancholy pipes to warn the 
stranger off. They were a marked contrast to the spare but muscular 
proportions of the other residents, the eternal restlessness of the foreigners, 
or the splashing, sprawling progress of the Yankees. The world seemed to 
be standing still with the one; the others seemed to be carrying all the 
world before them. 

"The habits of the New York merchants reminded me of my friends 
at Guernsey. They breakfasted at eight or half past, and by nine were 
in their counting houses, laying out the business of the day; at ten they 
were on their wharves, with aprons round their waists, rolling hogsheads 
of rum and molasses; at twelve at market, flying about as dirty and as 
diligent as porters; at two back again to the rolling, heaving, hallooing 
and scribbling. At four they went home to dress for dinner; at seven, to 
the play; at eleven, to supper." 

In 1796 "a potter's field was bought for a burial place, and a keeper 
appointed at six shillings a day." This ground was then at the junction of 
the Greenwich and Albany roads, but in 1800 the city authorities, "deeming 
it too near the public thoroughfares," selected what is now the site of 
Washington Square for a new potter's field, "on account of its retired 
location." Strong protests were made by the property owners in the 
vicinity to the change, and they offered to present a piece of ground in 

124 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 125 

another part of the city to the corporation, but the officials remained firm, 
and it was not until 1823, when a new burial ground was laid out between 
Fortieth and Forty-second streets, on Fourth and Fifth avenues, containing 
ten acres, at a cost of $8,449, that the old Potter's Field was levelled and 
Washington Square was formed on its site. One-third of the ground com- 
posing this square was purchased for $80,000 in 1824. 

The appointment of the first Superintendent of Public Works and Re- 
pairs and the surveying and laying out of West street, also the completion 
of the State Prison at Greenwich — the second of its kind in the United 
States and "designed for convicts of a higher grade" — occurred in 1796. 

Here begins an interesting history. In the old days breakers of the 
law were confined in the Stadt Huys, though prior to its erection Fort 
Amsterdam contained a dungeon, in which Indians taken in skirmishes 
between their tribe and the burghers were confined, and perhaps Hendrick 
Jansen, who was convicted of having slandered Governor Kieft in 1638, was 
confined in it. We are certain, however, that he was compelled to "stand 
at the gate of the fort at the ringing of the bell and ask the Governor's 
pardon," and that others, after a similar confinement for greater crimes, 
were compelled to "ride a horse with a razorlike back for two hours, 
while weights and chains were hung on their feet." But to our story of 
prisons. In 1642, when the Stadt Huys was erected in Dock street (now 
Pearl), at the head of Coenties slip, a small room on the first floor was 
set aside for prisoners, with the Provost Marshal as keeper. The Provost 
received one shilling for every prisoner committed, and was paid twelve 
stivers a day for the support of each prisoner. As he was a combined sheriff, 
warden, policeman and jailer, his duties became complicated with the 
grov/th of the colony, so that an official called a schout was appointed to 
relieve him of those outside of the prison. Until 1700 the Stadt Huys 
figured in prison annals. When the new City Hall, on the site of the 
present Sub-Treasury Building, in Wall street, was built in 1700, the pris- 
oners were confined in dungeons in the cellar, while the debtors were 
imprisoned in the attic apartments, "from the dormer windows of which 
they used to hang out old shoes and bags to solicit alms of the passersby." 
Another penalty incurred by evil-doers was that of being the chief figures 
in a whipping procession. From Broad street below Wall a cart, to the 
tail of which criminals were tied, started around the town, while sturdy 
arms plied whips on the backs of the unfortunates as it proceeded. The 
punishment of riding on a razorlike back of a horse was improved on in 
1700. Horse and rider were placed on a cart and trotted up and down the 
streets. Mary Price was the first person treated to the new form of pun- 
ishment, and the horse was known as "the horse of Mary Price." 

The City Hall was the only prison until 1760, and in it Zenger was 
confined during his struggle for the freedom of the press, which has been 
previously mentioned. In 1758 the first real jail, on what was until 
a short time ago the site of the Hall of Records, was built. At first 
named the New Jail, it afterward became known as the Debtors' Prison. 
It was a small stone building, nearly square, three stories high, with a 
belfry rising from the centre. There was no settled allowance in this jail 
for the prisoners, nor had they bedding. The Humane Society, before men- 



126 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

tioned, and donations from friends and the public were all they could 
rely on. Its limits extended to the whole city and island south of Love 
Lane (Twenty-first street). In "The Gazette and Mercury" of July 27, 
1772, is an advertisement showing the condition of the prisoners in the 
Debtors' Prison and the attitude of the public regarding them: "The Debtors 
confined in the Gaol of the City of New York, impressed with a grateful 
sense of the obligations they are under to a respectable publick for the 
generous contributions that have been made to them, beg leave to return 
their hearty thanks, because they have been preserved from perishing in a 
dreary prison from hunger and cold." 

In 1775 the Debtors' Prison was too small to accommodate all classes of 
prisoners, and a building, known as the Bridewell, was built in the park 
on the west side of the City Hall. It was a small structure of gray stone, 
two stories high, besides the basement. On the first floor, on the right, 
was the afterward famous Long Room, occupied entirely by females, in 
which there was a division to separate the whites from the people of color. 
On the second floor there were two wards, called the Upper Hall and the 
Chain Room. The Upper Hall was occupied by the higher class of convicts, 
and the Chain Room by the lower class. Except when a prisoner was under 
sentence of death, no fetters were applied, and even then only a light 
iron chain was fastened to one leg. 

On August 27, 1776, when the British took possession of the city, they 
found the Debtors' Prison and the Bridewell empty, and placed the former 
in charge of Cunningham, the brutal Provost Marshal of the Revolution, 
from whom its later name, The Provost, was derived. Cunningham had not 
forgotten the injuries he had received the preceding year at the foot of 
the Liberty Pole, and, the opportunity having arrived when he could be 
revenged on the patriots, he took advantage of it. Through the influence of 
General Gage he had succeeded to this post on the retirement of William 
Jones in 1775, and so pleasing, we are told, was his conduct to his superiors 
that he retained his place until the evacuation. Of his treatment of prison- 
ers an authority says: "The cruelty practised toward the inmates of the 
Provost rivals all that may be found in the annals of Christendom. Not 
content with seeing them die a slow death from cold and starvation, he 
poisoned many by mingling a preparation of arsenic with their food, and is 
said to have boasted that he had thus killed more of the rebels with his 
own hand than had been slain by all the King's forces in America." 

After the Revolution the Debtors' Prison was again put to its proper 
vise, but in 1817 the debtors' law was amended "to confine only those who 
had incurred debts for amounts larger than $25," thus doing away with an 
excess of misery. In 1830 it ceased to be used as a prison, and in 1835 
became the old Register's Office, and served the interests of the people 
until it was demolished to make way for rapid transit improvements. 

The Bridewell was scarcely finished at the time mentioned, the windows 
were yet unglazed, with nothing, says the historian, but iron bars to keep 
out the cold. Yet, despite the excessive inclemency of the weather, more 
than eight hundred of the unfortunate patriot prisoners of Fort Washington 
were thrust within its walls on the day of the capture, and left there for 
three days without a mouthful of food. "Every indignity which human 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. ^27 

Ingenuity could invent was heaped upon the wretched prisoners in the 
furtherance of the policy which hoped thus to crush the spirit of the 
army by disabling those that had been taken prisoners for future service 
and terrifying the remainder by the possibility of a similar fate." 

This prison, after the Revolution, or, rather, after the War of 1812 
for many English captives were confined within its walls during that time' 
resumed its career as the general city jail. The prisoners picked oakum 
or were employed on public works, at the discretion of the Mayor and 
were allowed each day half a pound of beef, half a pound of bread akd as 
much Indian meal porridge and potatoes as they could consume The 
expense of supporting the convicts was considerable, as at first trials took 
place only four times a year, and those held for slight infractions of the 
law had to await examination for nearly three months. Early in 1828 the 
day of trial was set for the first Monday of every month, and the number 
of prisoners arraigned was 170, on an average. The Bridewell was de- 
stroyed in 1838, and some of the stones used in building it served in the 
erection of its successor, the Tombs prison, on the Elm street side. 

The Greenwich State Prison was described as "an extensive, convenient 
and strongly built structure of the Doris order, situated at Greenwich about 
a mile and a half from the City Hall, and occupying one of the most 
healthy and pleasant spots on the banks of the Hudson " When the act 
appropriating $208,000 to relieve the crowded Bridewell and the New Jail 
was passed, it provided for two buildings, one at Albany and one at Green- 
wich. It was decided that Albany was too far removed from the city 
and the entire fund was devoted to the Greenwich building it was opened 
for the reception of convicts in August. 1796. and seventy prisoners were 
transferred to it from the other prisons. It stood at the "head of Amos 
street, now Tenth street, on the banks of the Hudson." and was surrounded 
by a high wall, on which an armed sentry was constantly pacing. Beyond 
this wall was the wharf, where convicts were landed from points up the 
river. Though the prison was situated in what was then the exclusive 
village of Greenwich, no resentment was offered by the inhabitants to the 
authorities for placing it there; they rather looked on the scheme as one 
promising a future rise in value of their holdings, and, besides it gave 
a stately air to the rural scenery. However, it was a handsome prison in 
those days, and profitable to the corporation, as weaving, spinning shoe- 
making, brushmaking, locksmithing and carpentry were carried on The 
working hours were twelve, and the convicts looked forward to the time of 
their release when they might profit by the knowledge acquired of the 
trades taught to them while in prison. The ration of each prisoner cost 
about eight cents a day, consisting of Indian meal mush and molasses 
pork, black bread, ox heads and hearts. Three persons were lodged in 
each of the fifty-two cells, which caused more communication between 
them than was safe, and resulted in attempts to escape, corruption of 
morals and weariness among the officials in their attempts to maintain 
discipline. An inferior class of keepers supplanted the dishearted ones 
and the prisoners were herded together to a greater extent, even children 
being thrust in with them. Reading of books was discontinued, inhuman 
whippings were administered, and it was said at the time that bodies 



128 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

of dead convicts were buried without ceremony in Potter's Field or turned 
over to dissectors. Anyway, chaos reigned in Greenwich Prison and called 
for immediate action by the authorities, who decided to erect another prison 
to reduce the strain on it caused by overcrowding. Greenwich served as a 
prison until 18 29, when it was sold, and a part of it destroyed. 

The building designed to relieve the strain on the State Prison at 
Greenwich was called the Penitentiary, and stood in the rear of what 
was then the Almshouse at Bellevue, "on the shores of the East River. ' 
It was for the imprisonment of minor offenders, and was opened on May 
18, 1826. It was a bluestone building, 325 feet in front, with two wings 
of 150 feet in depth each. In the year it was opened for prisoners Bellevue 
Hospital and the New Almshouse were built near by, and the three build- 
ings were inclosed with a stone wall, including twenty-six acres, known 
henceforth as the Bellevue Establishment. The criminals in the peniten- 
tiary were employed in picking oakum and breaking stone and at labor 
on public works. In 1822 Mayor Allen had the treadmill introduced into 
the prison, but it was abandoned after a few years' trial. 

The treadmill was a deterrent from the committing of future crimes, 
and was found highly salutary in its operation. It was in a two story 
stone house, sixty feet long, near the prison. In one part of the building 
were the wheel and apparatus and in the other was the machinery for 
working it The wheel was similar to a common water wheel. 25 feet long 
and 6 feet in diameter. On the external part of this wheel, on a level 
with the axle, the prisoners were obliged to tread, moving up together as 
the wheel went round, and at the same time edging off gradually to one 
end Every two minutes a bell sounded, and one prisoner stepped off and 
was permitted to sit still for a few minutes while another took his place. 
In this manner the operation continued incessantly for several hours. As 
well as receiving punishment, the prisoners ground the corn or gram for 
the supply of coarse food to the establishment. When the wheel was m 
operation each person ascended a distance equal to 2,500 feet in an 

hour. "^ 

The present State Prison at Ossining was opened in 1828, and to it 
were removed the harder convicts from the prison at Greenwich, and their 
places supplied by the minor offenders from the Bridewell and the New 
Jail In 1825 the penal institutions of the city were increased by the 
establishment of a House of Refuge for juvenile offenders. It was incor- 
porated in 1824 and opened on January 1, 1825, in the United States 
Arsenal in Madison Square, with nine inmates— six boys and three girls. 
In 1839 the building was destroyed by fire, and the institution was 
transferred to the fever hospital at the foot of East Twenty-third street, 
where it remained until 1854, when a new building was erected on Ran- 
dall's Island, and the inmates were removed to it. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



Religions — Dutch Reformed. 



History of the Dutch Reformed Church— First Members Worshipped in 

Loft in Mill— Customs Prevailing- in Three Places of 

Worship — First Trial of Steamboat. 

To tell the history of the entrance into New York and the growth 
of each of the present religious denominations would require more space 
than can be given to it in this book. What follows, therefore, is a skeleton 
history, prior to the opening of the nineteenth century and beginning with 
the first religious denominations, the Dutch Reformed Church, with events 
set down as they were found in various records. 

When Peter Minuit, the first Director General appointed by the West 
India Company to assume charge of the new Dutch colony, and his council 
and secretary sailed from Amsterdam in the Sea Mew on December 19, 
1625, they had with them two lay readers, or Consolers of the Sick, 
Sebastien Jansen Crol and Jan Huyghen, the latter a brother-in-law of 
the Director General. After the arrival of the expedition at Manhattan 
Island on May 4, 1626, and the acquisition of the land upon which they 
were to settle, the organization of the government of the province began, 
and, while it had been undertaken with no higher aim than commercial 
speculation, the moral and spiritual necessities of its people were not 
entirely overlooked. Services consisting of the reading of the Bible and 
an occasional sermon were conducted every Sabbath morning by the 
two Consolers of the Sick already mentioned, in the loft of what was 
then considered a notable building as well as a useful one — a mill for 
the grinding of corn, operated by horse power, located in what is now 
South William street, near Pearl. On April 7, 1628, the Rev. Jonas 
Michaelius arrived at Manhattan to assume the position of spiritual director 
and schoolmaster at the request of the directors of the West India Com- 
pany. In a letter sent four months after his arrival to the Rev. Adrianus 
Smoutius, at Amsterdam, he says: "Our coming here was agreeable to all, 
and I hope, by the grace of the Lord, that my services will not be unfruitful. 
The people, for the most part, are all free, somewhat rough and loose, 
but I find in most all of them both love and respect toward me. . . . We 
have first established the form of a church (gemeente), and, as Brother 
Sebastien Crol very seldom comes down from Fort Orange, because the 
directorship of that fort and the trade there is committed to him, it has 
been thought best to choose two elders for my assistance and for the proper 
consideration of all such ecclesiastical matters as might occur." The 
elders appointed were Director Minuit and his brother-in-law, Huyghen, 
and partly to their care and consideration were confided the fifty communi- 

129 



130 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

cants wIlo constituted the first regularly organized church society on Man- 
hattan Island. 

The loft in the horse mill was used as a place of public worship until 
the arrival of the second Director General of New Netherland, Wouter Van 
Twiller, in April, 1633. With Van Twiller came Dominie Bogardus, "a 
man of a certain order of talent in large measure, and honored for his 
piety." The dominie, seeing the inconvenient place of public worship in 
the loft of the horse mill, and knowing the value put by the West India 
Company on the proper religious observances of the people, requested that 
a new and more commodious structure be built. It was a plain wooden 
edifice, located on a high point of land fronting the East River, near what 
is now No. 33 Pearl street. As the river front came up as far as Pearl 
street at that time, the structure was a conspicuous object to vessels coming 
up the bay. This was the first church building on Manhattan Island. 

In 1642, during the administration of the third Director General of 
the colony, the "church in the fort" was built, to supplant "the mean 
barn" in which the Dutch worshipped their Creator. It was of stone, 
seventy-two feet long, fifty wide and sixteen high, and cost to erect 2,500 
guilders. It stood within the guadrangle of the fort, to the south of the 
Governor's house, and against the east wall. This situation protected it 
from Indian depredations. The roof was covered with oak shingles, which, 
from exposure to the weather, became blue, like slate. Over the front 
door Governor Kieft caused to be erected a marble slab with the inscription: 

Anno Domini, 1642, 

Wilhelm Kieft, Directeur General, 

Heeft de gemeente desen tempel doen bouwen. 

The service of the Church of Holland was performed in this structure 
until 1664, when, the city having changed masters by the arrival of an 
English force under Colonel Nichols, the fort and its buildings were taken 
possession of by the English troops. 

In 1656, under Stuyvesant, who, with all his Christian virtues, was 
religiously intolerant, a few Lutherans attempted to hold religious meetings 
in the colony, but were proclaimed, and the people were forbidden to 
assemble for any religious service not in harmony with the Reformed 
Church. Complaints were sent to Holland regarding the affair, and the 
directors of the company notified Stuyvesant as follows: 

"We would fain not have seen your worship's hand set to the placard 
against the Lutherans, nor have heard that you oppressed them. ... It 
has always been our intention to let them enjoy all calmness and tran- 
quillity. Wherefore you will not hereafter publish any similar placards 
without our previous consent, but allow all the free exercise of their 
religion in their own houses." 

Soon after the Lutherans in Holland sent a clergyman, the Rev. 
Ernestus Goetwater, to New Amsterdam, to organize a church, but the 
company, in the instructions sent to Stuyvesant, put in a proviso that 
there should be no "conventicles." The Governor, however, used his own 
interpretation of the Instructions he had received, with disastrous results 
to the followers of Luther. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 131 

In 1658 a ship arrived, bringing some Quakers who had been expelled 
from New England. Two of the Quaker women began to preach through 
the streets. They were arrested and taken to the prison in the fort. After 
their examination by the authorities they were placed on board a ship 
and sent to Rhode Island. Many other punishments were meted out in this 
year to the Quakers, but persecution seemed to make them stronger in 
their faith and increase their confidence, and as the years rolled on they 
obtained their rights, and in 1704, in Green street alley, between Liberty 
street and Maiden Lane, they occupied the site of their first place of wor- 
ship. 

During 1670, when the British Governor Lovelace controlled the 
destinies of the city, he offered "1,000 guilders per annum, with a dwelling 
house free of rent, and firewood gratis," to any minister from Holland 
who v/ould come and take charge of the New York church. Dominie Wil- 
hemus Van Nieuwenhuysen accepted the proposition, and in 1671 was 
installed. This was the first Dutch Episcopal service in New York. 

In 1676 ecclesiastical troubles broke out in the colony. The new 
dominie took exception to the clerical conduct of Dominie Van Rensselaer 
at Albany, and declared that he was not qualified to administer the sac- 
rament in the Reformed Dutch Church, having been ordained in England 
by a bishop. He forbade him to baptize children, "occasioning much 
ill feeling." Jacob Leisler also accused Dominie Van Rensselaer of "false 
preaching" and of "uttering dubious words." The latter was brought to 
New York for trial, but was acquitted, and the plaintiff was ordered to 
pay all costs "for giving the first occasion of difference." 

In 1680 "the church in the fort" became too small to accommodate 
the congregation, and a meeting was called to consider the best measures 
for building a new one. The Dutch and English clergymen attended, and, 
with the members of the Council and other leading citizens, voted to raise 
money by "free will or gift," and not by public tax. Certain fines were 
appropriated by the Mayor and aldermen toward the fund. The movement 
languished until December 19, 1691, when Abraham De Peyster was Mayor. 
Then "a lot in the midst of a beautiful and highly cultivated garden 
belonging to Mrs. Dominie Drisius and fronting on a picturesque little 
lane called Garden Alley" (now Exchange Place) was selected as the site of 
the new church. The work of building "was pushed forward with dis- 
patch," so that in 1693 the structure was ready for use. 

The South Dutch Church, in Garden street, was of an octagonal 
form, with a brick steeple large enough to afford space for a consistory 
room. The windows were large, with very small panes set in lead 
and curiously emblazoned with the coats of arms of the Church digni- 
taries. Several escutcheons also hung against the wall. In 1766 it 
was enlarged and repaired, but was not open for service. In 1807 it 
was rebuilt, with an open balcony on the tower, in which was a bell which 
had been brought from Holland, and which was used at the time the first 
church was built to convene all public meetings of the civil authorities 
and citizens. In 1835, during a great fire in the city, this church was 
destroyed, and from its ashes arose Dr. Hutton's church, which stood on 
Washington Square, and the South Reformed Dutch Church, Dr. Macauley, 



132 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

pastor, which stood on the corner of Fifth avenue and Twenty-first street. 

In 1729 the Middle Dutch Church was built in Nassau street, without 
pillars or gallery, the ceiling forming an entire arch without support. In 
1784 the pulpit was removed from its original place on the west side 
to the north end of the church, and galleries were built on the east, west 
and south sides. In 1844 it was purchased by the United States for the 
site of the old Post-office, and on the Sunday evening before it was turned 
over to the government farewell exercises were conducted in it in Dutch 
and English, a sermon was preached, an historical sketch of the structure 
given, a psalm sung and the benediction pronounced — "the last words of 
prayer in the old building being in the language of the ancient Knicker- 
bocker." 

The Fourth, or North, Dutch Church, founded in 1769, stood in William 
street, between Fulton and Ann. It was a substantial building of brown- 
stone, built originally with a tiled roof, for which shingles were after- 
ward substituted. Its spire was two hundred feet in height, and from the 
gallery in it "one of the finest views of the city could be had." Other 
churches of the Dutch Reformed denomination built before the nineteenth 
century were the Harlem and the Greenwich Village places of worship. 
"Although many independent congregations of the Reformed Dutch Church 
have since been formed," says an authority, "the Collegiate Church still 
exists — the mother Church of the denomination in New York and the 
oldest ecclesiastical organization in the country." 

Before leaving this subject a quotation from the same source as the 
foregoing regarding the customs that prevailed in the Reformed Dutch 
Church is of interest: "Unlike the plainly attired Puritan preachers, the 
dominies invariably appeared in the high circular pulpit clad in a gown of 
black silk, with large flowing sleeves. The pulpit was canopied by a 
ponderous sounding board. The first psalm was set with movable figures 
suspended on three sides of the pulpit, so that every one on entering 
might prepare for the opening chorus. Pews were set aside for the Gov- 
ernor, Mayor, city officers and deacons, and the remaining seats were held 
singly by the members for life, then booked at their death to the first appli- 
cant. The clerk occupied a place in the deacon's pew, and prefaced the 
exercises in the morning by reading a chapter from the Bible, and in the 
afternoon by chanting the Apostles' Creed, to divert the thovights of the 
people from worldly affairs. All notices designed to be publicly read were 
received by him from the sexton, then inserted into the end of a long 
pole, and thus passed up to the cagelike pulpit where the minister was 
perched, far above the heads of the congregation. It was his business, too, 
when the last grains of sand had fallen from the hourglass, which was 
placed invariably at the right hand of the dominie, to remind him by 
three raps with his cane that the time had come for the end of the sermon. 

"Before entering the pulpit the dominie raised his hat before his face, 
and silently offered a short prayer for a blessing on his labors. After 
uttering the concluding word of his text, he exclaimed: 'Thus far!' before 
' proceeding with his sermon. When the sermon was over the deacons 
rose in their places, and, after listening to a short address from the dominie, 
took each a long pole with a black velvet bag attached to the end, from 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 133 

which a small alarm bell was suspended, and passed about the church to 
collect alms for the poor. At the Lord's Supper the communicants, in- 
variably dressed in black, stood round the communion table at the foot of 
the pulpit and received the emblems from the minister's own hands, while 
the clerk read a suitable selection from the Scriptures." Many of these 
customs still exist among the denomination, and the traditions of none are 
wholly lost. The last sermon in the Dutch language was preached in 1803. 

Between 1786 and the sequential year of the chronology, 1796, the 
population of New York City had nearly doubled, and with this increase 
came a desire on the part of the people to obliterate what they considered 
old conditions — among them slavery, which still existed. The newspapers 
of the period, some of which are before the writer, contain advertisements 
of rewards for the capture of runaway slaves, notices of slave sales, offers 
of exchange of slaves who had grown old, etc. The efforts of the Manu- 
mission Society already referred to were having a good effect, however, 
so that Governor Jay, while himself a slave owner, had a bill introduced 
in the Assembly for the gradual abolition of slave-holding. It may be said 
to Jay's credit that he manumitted his slaves at an age when he con- 
sidered they had repaid him for whatever expense they had caused him. 
The bill for the gradual abolition of slavery in New York was fought with 
bitterness by many of the slaveholders, who insisted on the insertion of a 
clause giving them compensation for the release of their slaves, and was lost 
by a vote of 32 to 30. The Manumission Society still persevered, however, 
and gradually, year after year, reduced the number of slaves, until in 18 25 
many of them were enjoying the privileges of freemen. 

Another problem, but of a civic nature, engaged the attention this year 
of the people — the condition of the Collect, or Fresh Water Pond. Surveys 
of streets had been made about it, but the water in it was sixty feet deep. 
While in the winter a favorite resort of skaters, pleasure was, as it 
should be, a secondary consideration to the New Yorkers, and the increasing 
population of the city urged them to improve it. Committee after com- 
mittee reported measures to this effect, and negotiations were entered into 
with the owners of the swamps to reduce the width of the Collect and 
make a street on each side of it, but it was not until 1799 that improve- 
ments were begun, nor until 1805 that the condition of the pond was 
declared dangerous to public health. 

This pond, which occupied the site of the Tombs, is memorable as 
having been, in the summer of 1796, the water on which the first trial 
of a steamboat with a screw propeller took place. Its inventor was John 
Fitch, to whose genius is due the first double acting condensing engine, 
which transmitted power by means of cranks. The boat was eighteen 
feet long and six feet beam, Vt^ith square stern and round bows. The 
boiler was a twelve-gallon iron pot. The trial was successful, the little 
boat circling the pond at a speed which it was said would develop 
six miles an hour. Fitch died in 1798, after unsuccessful attempts to 
prove the priority of his inventions, it was said, though history gives him 
credit for priority in most of them. A model of his boat may be seen 
at the rooms of the New York Historical Society. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



Religions — Protestant Episcopal. 



Advent of Protestant Episcopal Church — Support of Church of England Made 

Compulsory — The Establishment of Trinity — Its Baptism of Fire — 

Building of St. George's, St. Paul's and St. John's Chapels. 

The advent of Benjamin Fletcher, on August 29, 1692, as Governor 
of New York, and also of Pennsylvania and Delaware, by royal warrant 
of William and Mary, may be said to have been the advent also of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the colony. Next to his personal ag- 
grandizement — and this was always the first consideration in the minds 
of England's representatives in the old days — Governor Fletcher's chief 
aim was the introduction into the province of the English church and the 
English language. 

"' Early in the government of one of Fletcher's predecessors, Dongan, the 
first act of the first Assembly elected by the people, in accordance with 
the instructions of Dongan's superior, the Duke of York, was to frame a 
Charter of Liberties, one of whose ordinations was "that no person pro- 
fessing faith in God, by Jesus Christ, should at any time be in any way 
disquieted or questioned for any difference of opinion in matters of re- 
ligion." But this was before the Duke of York succeeded to the throne 
under the title of James II. With his accession, Dongan received new 
instructions to favor the introduction of the Roman Catholic religion into 
the province — a policy which he was reluctant to adopt, though a Catholic 
himself. The citizens of the province were mostly Protestants, many of 
them Waldenses and Huguenots, who had fled from the religious persecu- 
tions in Europe to seek protection under the tolerant Dutch government, 
and Dongan, despite his creed and the new instructions, desired to preserve 
their religious freedom. He also saw the increasing influence of the 
French in Canada over the Iroquois in matters Catholic, and believed 
it was necessary, in order to preserve the province to the English govern- 
ment, to exercise a judicious policy in interpreting the orders of his royal 
master. His apathy displeased James, whose settled purpose was to 
encourage the growth of Catholicism in his dominions, rather than adhere 
to the ordination of the Charter of Liberties, and Dongan was recalled. He 
afterward returned as a private citizen, and took up his residence on an 
estate on Staten Island, for which he had previously procured a patent, and 
which for many years was in the possession of his family. 

It is not to be wondered at that with the accession to the throne of 
the Prince and Princess of Orange, stanch Protestants, an overturning of 
religious affairs should occur in the colony. On March 19, 1691, Governor 

134 



I 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 135 

Sloughter arrived, and brought with him the royal authority to tear down 
old laws and substitute others in conformity with the wishes of the new 
sovereigns. Sloughter was a weakling in character, but his orders to 
crush every symptom of popular liberty in the colony and to rule it with 
a rod of iron were carried out to the letter by his assistants. The greatest 
evidence of his weakness was when, overcome with wine, the enemies of 
Leisler, the last Dutch Governor of New York, cajoled Fletcher into signing 
Leisler's death warrant. 

Under Sloughter the Charter of Liberties was declared null and void, 
and thus was the way made for Benjamin Fletcher, his successor, to make 
the Church of England the established church of the land. This was 
contrary to the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants, who still spoke 
the Dutch language and adhered to the Dutch Church, which they regarded 
as the established church of the province. When the first Assembly was 
convened after his arrival Fletcher moved to have the Church of England 
made the established church, on the ground that the Dutch Church was 
attached to the Classis of Amsterdam, and therefore not within the control 
of the crown. The Assembly refused to listen' to any such intimation. 
The next Asembly, which convened in the latter part of 1693, was more 
compliant, however, and passed an act which provided for the building of 
six churches — one in this city, one in Richmond, two in Westchester and two 
in Suffolk — each to have a Protestant minister, with a salary of from £40 
to £100, to be paid by a tax levied on the inhabitants. This act was sent 
to the Governor for his approval, and, being less than he desired, was 
returned, with an amendment granting him the power of inducting every 
incumbent. The Assembly refused to pass the amendment, and was called 
before the Governor. He broke into violent abuse, and told the members 
that he would collate or suspend any minister he chose, and while in control 
of the government would see that heresy, schism or rebellion was not 
preached among them. He then dismissed them with angry threats. The 
Assembly would not be forced to accept the amendment, however, and the 
bill subsequently was passed without it, the word Protestant in it being 
construed to mean Episcopal. Through this construction all the inhabitants 
were compelled to support the Church of England, no matter what their 
religious opinions. 

In 1694 the freeholders of New York City elected two wardens and ten 
vestrymen, who met and voted to raise £100 for the support of a minister. 
At their second meeting they decided that "a Dissenting minister be called 
to have the Care of Souls for this City." The Governor intervened, de- 
claring that this office was already provided for, and that the chaplain of 
the garrison was by right minister of the city and entitled to the place. 
The Council refused to concur with the Governor, and it was not until 
late in 1696 that William Vesey, a dissenting clergyman, received the call. 

In 1696, under the provisions of the act of the Assembly mentioned 
above, a building for religious worship v/as begun, and was completed and 
opened on February 6 of the following year by the Rev. William Vesey. In 
the charter granted to it on May 6, 1697, by act of the Assembly, and 
approved and ratified by the Governor and Council, "a certain church and 
steeple lately built in the city of New York, together with a parcel of 



136 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

ground adjoining," was to be known as Trinity Church. The "parcel of 
ground" was what was known as the "King's Farm," which had been set 
apart for the use of the Governor, and "consisted of a garden, an orchard, a 
triangular graveyard in one corner, and pasturage for cows and horses." 
It had been leased for twenty years, at sixty bushels of wheat a year, by 
Governor Andros, and at the time when a church site was being sought it 
was recommended to Governor Fletcher that, as the lease was about to 
expire, the ground should be turned over to the churchwardens for seven 
years without fine. This marked the real beginning of the Established 
Church in the province of New York. Trinity's charter was not the first 
issued in the colony. The Dutch Church, through Dominie Selyns, was 
granted a charter by Governor Fletcher some time prior to that of Trinity. 

With the arrival of Lord Bellomont, in 1698, as the successor of 
Governor Fletcher, wholesale condemnation of all the acts of his prede- 
cessor occurred. The vacating of the grant of land to Trinity Church by 
Fletcher was taken up, and appeal was made by the churchwardens and 
vestry to the Bishop of London to urge the Lords of Trade to prevent 
Bellomont from wresting from them their property and rights. So ag- 
grieved was the Rev.' Mr. Vesey that he left the names of the Governor 
and his family out of his prayers. The Lords of Trade, however, laid 
the act for breaking the grants on the table, and peace reigned for a time. 

With the ascendancy of tlie youngest daughter of King James to the 
throne of England came Lord Cornbury as Governor of the colony. He 
was an Episcopalian, and believed that the establishment of that church 
in the colony would be a safeguard against "popery." Under the Governor- 
ship of Cornbury the Queen gave her attention to the condition of Trinity 
Church. The "King's Farm," before mentioned, was augmented in 1705 by 
the Anetje Jans estate, and formally presented by deed patent to the church. 
This estate had been granted to Roelof Jansen by Van Twiller in 1636, and 
comprised 62 acres of ground, beginning a little south of the present Warren 
street and extending along Broadway as far as Duane street, thence north- 
westerly a mile and a half to Christopher street, forming a sort of unequal 
triangle, with its base upon the North River. Jansen died a few years 
after the grant, leaving four children, and his widow, Anetje Jans, became 
the wife of Dominie Bogardus. After the dominie's death the grant was 
confirmed by Stuyvesant to the widow. When the province was captured 
by the English government the grant was again confirmed to her heirs, 
who sold it in 1671 to Colonel Lovelace, one of the heirs, however, failing 
to join in the conveyance. Every now and then the validity of the title 
to this estate is attacked, but the estate continues to increase in value, 
though at one time it was of comparatively little worth. 

The ancient Trinity was enlarged in 1737, but during the fire on 
September 2, 1776, which destroyed the southwest part of the city, it was 
entirely burned, and lay in ruins during the war and until 1788, when 
it was rebuilt. It was consecrated in 1791 by the Right Rev. Bishop 
Provost. To this church two chapels were attached — St. George's, in 
Beekman street, built in 1759, and St. Paul's, in Broadway, erected in 
1766. A third was added in 1807 — St. John's, in Varick street, opposite 
the centre of Hudson Square, which at the time was the most*: admired, 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 137 

fashionable and retired part of the city. It was so large and situated 
so far uptown that the people wondered when the time would come that a 
congregation would be found to fill its pews. In Ann street was Christ 
Church, a stone edifice, built in 1794; St. Mark's, in Stuyvesant street, 
built in 1795; Zion Church, in Mott street, built in 1801, and the Eglise du 
Saint Esprit, in Pine street, near Nassau, erected by the French Protestants 
in 1704. The present Trinity was consecrated in 1846. St. George's was de- 
stroyed by fire on the night of January 5, 1814, but with the prompt aid of 
Trinity Church it was again rebuilt, and consecrated in November, 1815. 
Another of the Episcopal churches was St. Thomas's, at the corner of 
Houston street and Broadway. A few years prior to the time it was 
built, 1826, the city had extended northward and a great number of the 
genteel families had removed to the vicinity, "so that it became 
necessary to erect a church that would correspond with the taste and 
wealth of the people." It was of stone, in pure Gothic style, and dis- 
tinguishing features of the structure were two large angular, projecting 
towers at the northeast and southeast corners, which rose in diminished 
proportions to a height of eighty feet and ended in pointed turrets of a 
dwarf size. 

Among the interesting things that occurred in the old city 
in 1796 were the purchase of a lot by the corporation on the 
southwest corner of Broad and Wall streets for ;£S00, which to-day is 
worth i300 a square foot, and of Bedlow's Island by the State for the 
nominal sum of eight shillings, for use as a lazaretto. The school money 
received from the State this year was £944, £110 of which sum went to 
the Episcopal Free School, £200 to the Presbyterian, £250 to the Dutch, 
i54 to the German-Lutheran, £100 to the Scotch Presbyterian and £230 
to the African churches. Fifty-eight lots of common land above Canal street 
were sold for £ 17,600 and "four bushels of wheat each forever." On De- 
cember 5 of this year a bill for £35 was rendered by John Morton, pro- 
prietor of "The Daily Advertiser," for printing done for the city corporation 
for twelve months. The incendiary was abroad during the month mentioned, 
as the old record tells of a reward of $500 for his apprehension, as repeated 
attempts had been made to fire the city. 

In 1797 Presbyterian churches were built in Rutgers street and in 
Pearl street. South street was being filled in rapidly, and in the early 
part of the year the laying out of Hudson street was begun. On October 
17 John Adams, who had been elected President of the United States the 
preceding year, was welcomed by the corporation, and another man of 
distinction, fresh from the rigors of a St. Petersburg prison, arrived in 
the autumn of 1797, and was feted by the citizens of New York — the accom- 
plished Pole, Kosciuszko. The Count Niemcewicz, M'ho had fought with 
him and shared his imprisonment in Russia, accompanied him. 

Here is a record of October 30, 1797: "A menagerie of wild beasts on 
the corner of Pearl and State streets." On December 11 Goerck and 
Mangin were appointed to make a map of the city, and at the same meeting 
of the Council at which this action was taken "cartmen were arranged 
in classes, with a foreman." The law governing cartmen, porters, carts 
and hand barrows was strict in those days. Stations were allotted to cart- 



138 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



men in nearly every street in the city, but principally in the vicinity of 
the wharves, piers and slips. The porters' stations were in Coffee House 
Slip, Pearl street and Maiden Lane. Each cart was numbered and registered 
as to-day, and paid for the first license $2, and for a renewal 12i^ cents. 
To receive a license the applicant had to be a citizen of the United States 
and of the city for six months preceding his application, at least twenty- 
one years old and the owner of a good horse and cart. If found driving 
without a license a penalty of $15 was levied on him. 




SCENE IN BILLOPP HOUSE, STATEN ISLAND, 
(Committee from Congress, headed by Benjamin Franklin, rejecting Lord 

Plowe's overtures for peace in 1776.) 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Religions — Lutheran. 



The First Lutheran Church — Justus Falckner First Lutheran Pastor to Be 
Ordained in America — Account of His Ordination — Four Congre- 
gations and One Hundred Communicants His Initial Charge. 

The history of the Lutheran Church in New York in the early part 
of the seventeenth century is extremely meagre. Whatever records were 
kept of the struggle of the sect to obtain a foothold in the colony are in 
the keeping of the authorities in Amsterdam, Holland. It is known, how- 
ever, that Dutch Lutherans came to America with the first settlers on 
Manhattan Island in 1623, and that the first German Lutheran arrived 
in 1644. The followers of Luther had the same trouble with Governor 
Stuyvesant as other religious denominations not of his belief, for in 1660 
he refused them permission to build a church in New Amsterdam, and 
was supported by the West India Company on the ground that so dangerous 
a precedent would soon be followed by the other dissenting sects, and thus 
would the established religion of the province be destroyed. This refusal 
of Stuyvesant is considered by historians to be the first manifestation of 
religious bigotry in the provinces. 

When the English had succeeded in expelling the Dutch from their 
American possessions, in 1664, and the affairs of the province were in 
the hands of Colonel Nicolls, as Deputy-Governor, the Lutherans were per- 
mitted to erect a church and to send to Europe for a preacher of their own 
denomination. In February, 1669, Jacob Pabricius arrived, and was the 
first to preach to them in their own language, in what was known as the 
first Lutheran Church, which stood outside the fort, about where Bowling 
Green now is. When the town came once more into the possession of 
the Dutch, in 1670, this building was razed for military purposes, and a 
lot was given to the congregation at what is now the southwest corner 
of Broadway and Rector street. 

The religious zeal of the Lutherans in the seventeenth century was 
confined more to Pennsylvania than to New York, as in 1694 a band of 
German Pietists settled on the Wissahickon, a short distance from Ger- 
mantown, and proved a powerful factor in upholding the orthodox Lutheran 
faith in the province of Pennsylvania. In 1701 Andreas Rudman arrived 
in New York from Pennsylvania and began to gather up and organize 
the German, Dutch and Swedish Lutherans, who were scattered over a large 
territory, including parts of Long Island and East Jersey. In the 
latter, part of the year Dominie Rudman and his family were stricken with 
yellow fever, which broke out with fury in the fort and in the town. The 

139 



I40 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

dominie's second son died from the scourge, and an urgent appeal was 
sent to Pennsylvania in Augvist for assistance. Dominies Biorck and Sandel 
were sent to aid him, but because of the imperfect means of communication 
at the time it was the middle of September before they reached New 
York. The dominie was recovering from his illness, but concluded that 
on account of the rigor of the climate it would be impossible for him to 
continue in charge another winter. Not wishing to leave the field 
uncovered, he wrote to Justus Falckner, one of the Lutheran community 
in Pennsylvania, that he had decided to leave the province, and that he 
considered him more suitable than any one else to safely "commit his sheep 
to." He told him he would try to persuade the Ministerium to initiate him 
into the ministry. Falckner had not been ordained at the time, but was 
a devout member of the little band of German pietists on the Wissahickon. 
He consented to receive the Swedish ordination and to take charge of 
Rudman's flock. On October 27, 1703, the church council of New York 
wrote him to come and preach a trial sermon, but as the congregation were 
not insistent in the matter of a trial sermon, a formal call was sent to 
him to serve them as pastor. The Ministerium evidently granted the appeal 
of Dominie Rudman, as on November 24, 1703, Falckner was ordained in 
the old Swedish Lutheran Church, Gloria Dei, at Wicacoa, in Philadelphia, 
German, Swede and Hollander combining to furnish a regularly ordained 
pastor as missionary among the scattered Lutherans in the province of 
New York and East Jersey, and assisting in the first regular ordination 
of an orthodox clergyman in the Western world. 

The ceremony, we are told by his biographer, Julius Friederich Sachse, 
Litt. D., to whom the writer is indebted for most of the information regard- 
ing the development of the Lutheran Church in New York, "was enacted 
upon that bleak November day within the bare walls of the Swedish 
church on the banks of the Delaware. The sacred structure, as yet bare 
and unfinished, lacked both tower and side projections. Earthen floors 
and hard benches in the interior well matched the unadorned altar. 

"Upon this occasion no pealing organ, with a multitude of stops 
and pedals, vestured choir or elaborate music made melody for the service. 
No long procession of robed clergy, with mitred bishop surrounded by 
acolytes and led by the cross bearer, were present to add dignity to the 
scene and impress the beholder with awe. The Theosophical Brotherhood, 
partly clad in the habit of the German University student, others in the 
rough pilgrim garb of unbleached homespun, occupied the front benches, 
while the rear of the church was filled with a number of Swedes and a 
sprinkling of English churchmen and Dissenters. It is said that even a few 
Quakers and Indians were attracted to the church, and enhanced the 
picturesqueness of the scene. The service was opened with a Voluntary on 
the little organ (the earliest reference to a church organ in any Protestant 
church in America) in the gallery by Jonas, the organist, supplemented 
with instrumental music by the Mystics on the viol, hautboy, trumpet and 
kettledrum. After this they intoned the 'Veni Creator Spiritus.' " 

The ceremony of ordination was very impressive, says the biographer 
the Apostolic Creed being slowly read, each word being carefully 
repeated by the candidato before the next following one was ut- 



CRADLE DAYS OP NEW YORK. 141 

tered by the secretary, the Rev. Andreas Sandel. After the questions 
and answers of the ordination ceremony had been put and received, and the 
obligation was administered upon the Holy Evangels, the candidate kneeled, 
while the Brotherhood intoned the "Veni Sancto Spiritu" and two clergy- 
men invested him with the chasuble and stole. The Theosophists then 
intoned the "Non Nobis Domine," during which the little procession re- 
formed, and. as the last verse was sung, slowly left the church, and the first 
regular ordination of a Protestant clergyman in America was at an end. 
"After the ordination services were over a diploma, such as was used 
in the Swedish Lutheran Church at that day, was filled out in due form 
and laid upon the altar, before which the ordination had taken place, 
and there was signed and sealed by the three officiating clergymen, after 
which it was handed to the newly ordained presbyter." Thus was the new 
dominie sent out to minister in the adjoining provinces, and labor, not alone 
among those of his own kith and kin, but among people who used a 
European tongue foreign to his own. 

Dominie Falckner arrived in New York City eight days after his 
ordination, and, after preaching on the third and fourth Sundays in 
Advent, was accepted as their regular pastor by the oldest Lutheran con- 
gregation in America. His first official act was to send a report and copy 
of his ordination to the Lutheran Consistory at Amsterdam, under whose 
patronage the church in New York was established, and to whom they 
looked for assistance and encouragement. 

The Lutheran church as Dominie Falckner found it "was more like 
unto a cattle shed than a house of God," as he stated in a letter to the Am- 
sterdam Consistory. "Only two windows are in the building, one is back of 
the pulpit and the other directly opposite. As the church is not paved, 
but merely floored with loose boards, some long, others short, one cannot 
pass through it without stumbling." In another letter sent to Amsterdam 
in 1705 he says: "It is well known to you that since the death of the 
sainted Mr. Bernhardus Arentius we have been many years without a 
pastor. Hence it is that our congregation has become dispersed, the young 
people and many of the older ones have gone over to the so-called Reformed 
Sect. . . . Our congregation here is very small, because its members 
are dispersed far and near throughout the country; the majority of them 
are poor, and many, especially the young people, ignorant on account of the 
lack of Bibles, Catechisms, Psalm and Hymn Books, and it would be of 
great service here to have a pamphlet in which by means of short questions 
and answers the difference between the Lutheran and the so-called Re- 
formed opinions were exposed, every point thus concluding, 'Therefore the 
Lutheran opinion is the better one.' " 

This divine's activity extended along the whole valley of the Hudson 
from New York to Albany, and the four small Lutheran congregations 
which he served consisted of one hundred constant communicants. To his 
untiring zeal is due the keeping together of the Lutheran sect in the 

colony. 

In 1710 three thousand Palatines, driven from their homes by the 
inhuman command of Louis XIV, were financially assisted by the English 
government in seeking homes in the New World. Many of them remained 



142 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

in New York, where, with the assistance of the small communion then 
existing, they built a Lutheran church on the site given them when the 
first church was razed. It was called the Trinity Lutheran Church. This 
church served the congregation until 1729, when a new building was 
erected. In 1776 the Lutheran church in Broadway was destroyed by 
fire, and the only remaining place of worship of the sect was the German 
Lutheran Church in Frankfort street, corner of William, which had been 
built in 1767. On July 6, 1784, the Trinity Lutheran congregation, hav- 
ing substituted the German for the Dutch tongue, united with the German 
Lutheran Church known as the Swamp congregation, and assumed the name 
"The Corporation of the United German Lutheran Churches of New York," 
and the services were transferred to it. About 1826 the united congre- 
gation moved to Walker street, near Broadway. By special act of the 
legislature, passed on March 29, 1866, the name was changed to "The 
German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew," and a spacious 
church was secured at the northeast corner of Broome and Elizabeth streets, 
where the congregation now worship. 

The church register of this congregation, from the time of Justus 
Falckner, is interesting as showing the work done by him as a missionary 
in the province. We find that on February 27, 1704, baptism was ad- 
ministered in a barn at Hackensack, with the following: "O Lord! Lord, 
let this child, together with the three above written Hackensack Children, 
be and remain engrossed upon the book of life." Another record is of 
the baptism of a negro slave at Albany: "Anno 1712, January 27, baptized 
at Loonenburg, in Albany, Peter Christian, a Negro and slave of Jan Van 
Loons, of Loonenburg, about thirty years of age. He has promised among 
other things that he will hereafter, as well as he has done before, faith- 
rully serve his master and mistress as servant. Grant, O God, that this 
black and hard Negro-heart be and remain a Christian heart, and he 
may be numbered among those who are clothed with white raiment before 
the throne of the Lamb, through the merits of the Lamb of God, who bore 
the sins of the world. Amen." 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century two Lutheran churches 
existed in New York, the one in Frankfort street and the German Reformed 
Church, in Nassau street, near John. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



Religions — Presbyterian. 



History of the Presbyterian Church in New York— "The Apostle of Presby- 

terianism in America," Rev. Francis Doughty— Arrest of 

Ministers by Order of Lord Cornbury. 

"The arm of the civil government was constantly employed in support 
of the denunciations of the Church, and, without its forms, the Inquisition 
existed in substance, with a full share of its terrors and its violence.' So 
wrote Justice Story of the religious intolerance in the New England settle- 
ments in the middle of the seventeenth century, and to this religious intol- 
erance is due the advent of Presbyterianism in New York City in 1642, when 
the Rev. Francis Doughty, dragged from an assembly at Cohasset for saying 
that "Abraham's children should have been baptized," was obliged to flee, 
and found a refuge on Manhattan Island. Doughty was, therefore, the first 
Presbyterian minister of New York City, and, according to Dr. Charles A. 
Briggs, "the Apostle of Presbyterianism in America." To be accurate, 
Doughty's first place of refuge was Maspeth, Long Island, where he purposed 
establishing a Presbyterian colony, but Indian wars broke out and the 
colonists were forced to flee for safety to Manhattan. Here he ministered 
for five- years as the pastor of a congregation which later became the First 
Presbyterian Church. 

The Rev. Francis Doughty had his own troubles with Governor Kieft, 
for the record says that "a dispute having arisen between the minister and 
his associates regarding the control of the Maspeth colony, the director and 
Council decided the case against the minister and took the control of the 
colony out of his hands, and upon his threatening to appeal to the court 
of Holland fined him twenty-five guilders and imprisoned him twenty-four 
hours for contumacy." This conflict with the Dutch Governor made it nec- 
essary for him to leave the city. He went to Maryland, where he labored 

until his death. 

The second Presbyterian minister to preach in the colony was the Rev. 
Richard Denton, an Englishman, who arrived in 1648 from the Presbyterian 
settlement at Stamford, Conn. He divided his time between Hempstead, 
Long Island, and New Amsterdam, and seemed to have been persona grata 
with the Dutch ministers, as they permitted him to occupy the building in 
which they worshipped— but twice only. He returned to England m 1658. 
Religious tolerance existed in the colony at this time, and tended to pro- 
duce greater breadth of view and liberality of sentiment than was to be 
found in the New England colonies. 

At the time of the cession of the province to the English in 1664 there 

143 



144 CRADLE DAYS OP NEW YORK. 

were few Presbyterians in the city, and these few were without a definite 
place of worship, but they courageously kept together, and awaited the 
bursting of the religious intolerance bubble brought into the colony by the 
English. And it did burst, but the effect was of no benefit to them, for suc- 
ceeding Governors, at the behest of their royal masters, played battledore 
and shuttlecock with the religious beliefs of their subjects. Their action, 
however, spurred the different sects to obtain supremacy. The 
Presbyterians were in the ascendancy in Jamaica and obeying to the letter 
the laws of the land. In New York, as was said, they were few in number, 
and assembled in private houses on the Sabbath to conduct worship. With 
the coming of Lord Cornbury as ruler of the colony new instructions regard- 
ing religious worship were issued, and an event occurred in Jamaica which 
showed to what straits the Presbyterians were put in order to hold what 
belonged to them. 

Soon after the Governor's arrival yellow fever was sweeping over the 
city. He hastened to remove his family to a place of safety, and took up 
quarters for the summer at Jamaica. There were few good houses in that 
village, and the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, the Presbyterian minister, offered his 
new parsonage to the Governor, while he sought less convenient accommo- 
dations. The hospitality was accepted, and requited in a peculiar manner. 
A handful of Episcopalians in the village were envious of the prosperity of 
the Presbyterians, and, knowing that Cornbury had for his aim the estab- 
lishment of the Episcopal Church in the province, were determined to wrest 
from the successful sect their sacred edifice and parsonage, which they con- 
sidered, according to the Ministry Act passed in 1693, they held simply by 
virtue of priority of possession. Cornbury countenanced the scheme of the 
Episcopalians, and between the morning and the evening services on a 
Sunday afternoon a few of them obtained the key of the church and took 
possession of the sanctuary. The following day the outraged Presbyterians 
gathered around the building and forcibly entered it. A scene of violence 
ensued, several persons were wounded, and, assisted by Cornbury's own ser- 
vants, the Episcopalians became the victors, if victory there was in such a 
disgraceful act. Tedious litigation followed, many of the Presbyterians were 
prosecuted for damages to the building, and several were heavily fined and 
imprisoned. Cornbury gave the parsonage to the Episcopacy before he re- 
turned to the city at the end of the summer, and the glebe he turned over 
to the sheriff, who laid it out in building lots and farmed it for the benefit 
of the Church. In 1728 the colonial courts, however, decided that the 
church edifice belonged to the Presbyterians, and it was restored to them. 

Another act of the Governor's is of interest. The Rev. Francis Ma- 
kemie, an Irishman, who laid the foundations of organized Presbyterianism 
in this country, journeyed from the Carolinas to New York in 1706, accom- 
panied by the Rev. John Hampton, to preach the gospel to the few of his 
sect who were without a minister. He sent a message to Cornbury, asking 
for an interview, and received a courteous invitation the meet the Governor. 
The two ministers were well received by the Governor, especially as they 
made no mention of their intention to preach. Since they had the Queen's 
authority to preach anywhere in her dominions, they thought it unnecessary 
to trouble the Governor in the matter. Invitations were extended to them 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 145 

to occupy both Dutch and French pulpits, but they had made other arrange- 
ments, and Makemie preached at a private house, while Hampton occupied 
the sacred desk of a little Newtown (Long Island) church. The Governor 
ordered their arrest the following day, and had them brought before him. 
He questioned them gruffly, and told them the law would not permit the 
countenancing of strolling preachers. They must first qualify themselves 
by satisfying him that they were fit to occupy the pulpit before they could 
be permitted to preach. Makemie referred him to the work he had performed 
in the South, and said he had qualified himself there. Ignorance of the law 
by the ministers was construed by the Governor as contumacy and inten- 
tional fraud, and they were held for trial. It was nearly seven weeks 
before it took place, and during the time the community was aroused to a 
deep sense of the injustice being perpetrated. The trial was attended with 
considerable excitement, but the ministers were acquitted by the jury, 
though they were obliged to pay all the expense of the prosecution, amount- 
ing to more than £83. 

Fourteen years of the eighteenth century had passed before the growth 
of Presbyterianism was noticeable in the colony. With the close of Lord 
Cornbury's administration at that time and the increase of dissensions in 
the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterians, relieved of civic disfavor and of 
the aggression of the Episcopacy, determined to establish a church. The 
Rev. James Anderson was called from Newcastle, Del., and was favorably 
received. In 1716 the Church was organized. In 1718, the sect having 
gained sufficient strength, a lot was purchased in Wall street, near the City 
Hall, from the heirs of Gabriel Thompson, who had originally purchased it 
from the "De Peyster Gardens," and the erection of a church was begun. 
The lot was 124 by 88 feet, and the purchase price was £350. During the 
building of the church the congregation, by special act of the corporation, 
were allowed to hold their services in the City Hall. 

Owing to the opposition of Trinity, which still claimed to be the 
Church of New York, the Presbyterians were unable to secure a charter for 
the church, so the pastor and a few members held the property in fee 
simple until 1730, when it was transferred to the Church of Scotland, and 
held by it until 1766. The First Church was enlarged in 1748, and entirely 
rebuilt in 1810 of brownstone. In the conflagration of 1835 it was de- 
stroyed, but was rebuilt soon after, and occupied for eight or ten years, 
when, tempted by the increasing value of the ground, the congregation 
disposed of it for secular purposes and removed to their new edifice in 
Fifth avenue, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets. The old church was 
taken down, stone by stone, and put up again in Jersey City, where it was 
a conspicuous object for many years. 

The Second, or Brick, Presbyterian Church, in Beekman street, was 
built in 1767 on the angular lot known as "The Vineyard," which had 
been granted by the corporation at a rental of £40 a year to John Rogers 
and Joseph Treat, ministers, and John Morin Scott, Peter R. Livingston and 
others, trustees, for an indefinite period. More fortunate than its neigh- 
bor, the Brick Church escaped the great conflagration, and remained a 
landmark of olden times until the widening of Beekman street demanded 
its demolition, when the congregation began the erection of a new edifice 



146 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



on the corner of Fifth avenue and Thirty-seventh street. The iron railing 
which had surrounded the church for so many years was taken down and 
removed to South Brooklyn, where it was set up about the residence of the 
late J. S. T. Stranahan. These were Associated Churches, and were under 
the care of the Rev. Drs. Rogers, McKnight and Miller. The Third, or 
Scotch, Presbyterian church stood in Cedar street, between Broadway and 
Nassau street, and was founded in 1758. "The church is lighted with gas 
during evening service," says a record of 1829. It was under the charge 
of Dr. Mason. The Fourth Presbyterian Church, a wooden building, stood 
in Rutgers street, and was founded in 1797. It was in charge of the Rev. 
Dr. Milledollar. The Fifth, in Pearl street, near Broadway, was also 
founded in 1797. The Sixth Reformed Scotch Presbyterian Church stood in 
Chambers street. The home of the Seventh, in 1828, was in a room in Hud- 
son street, corner of Christopher. The Eighth, built of stone in 1867, stood 
in Cedar street, between Nassau and William. Dr. Romeyn was the pastor. 
It was the ancestor of Dr. Pott's church in University Place and of Dr. Alex- 
ander's, at the corner of Nineteenth street and Fifth avenue. The Ninth was 
in Orange street, now Baxter street, and was built, in 1808, of wood. The 
Tenth, in Spring street, was founded in 1810, and was also built of wood. 
The Eleventh, in Murray street, was built of stone in 1812, "with a tower 
rising to the height of two hundred feet, and pews receding amphitheatri- 
cally from the pulpit." 

At the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century there were 
twenty-one Presbyterian churches in New York City, as against eighteen 
Episcopal, thirteen Dutch Reformed, thirteen Baptist, fourteen Methodist, 
four Catholic, three Unitarian, three Lutheran, one Moravian, two Uni- 
versalist and three Friends' Meeting Houses. 




BILLOrP HOUSE, STATEN 
(Oldest liouse in City of New York. 



ISLAND. 
Built In 16S8.) 



I 



CHAPTER XXX. 



Religions — Baptist, Met-hodist, Jewish and Quaker. 



The Baptist Church — Meetings in Private Dwellings — Sacrament Admin- 
istered in Rigging Loft — The Methodist Church — The 
Moravians — The Quakers — The Jews. 

The history of the organization and growth of the Baptist Church in 
the old city is of more than ordinary interest. Prior to 1750 the members 
of this sect were few in number, and these few maintained prayer meet- 
ings for several years in private dwellings. In 1755 they held services in a 
rigging loft in William street, and a sermon was occasionally delivered to 
them by a minister from Scotch Plains, N. J., of the church at which place 
they were considered a branch. Once in three months Elder Miller, the 
pastor of the Scotch Plains church, administered the sacrament to them in 
the William street rigging loft. 

In 1760 a small church was founded by the sect in Gold street, between 
Fulton and John, and in 1762 the First Baptist Church was opened, 
with twenty-seven members, the Rev. John Gano, a scholar of rare culture, 
becoming the first pastor. The infant church flourished under his ministry 
for sixteen years prior to the War of the Revolution, the membership in- 
creasing from a mere handful to over two hundred communicants. With the 
breaking out of hostilities, the Rev. John Gano became a chaplain in the 
army. The little congregation was scattered, and their house of worship 
was turned into a stable by the British troops. When peace again reigned 
the minister returned to the city to take up his charge, but could find only 
thirty-seven of the former two hundred and fifty members of his church. 
He valiantly set to work to re-establish the body, and in a short time the 
house of worship was rehabilitated and the membership was increased to 
nearly three hundred. In 1788 Mr. Gano resigned his charge, and was suc- 
ceeded by the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Foster, who was the minister for ten years. 
During the pastorate of his successor, the Rev. William Collier, the church 
in Gold street was rebuilt of stone, and in May, 1802, was dedicated, one 
of the sons of the first pastor of the church, the Rev. Stephen Gano, deliv- 
ering the sermon of dedication. This church was taken down in 1840, and 
it is said the stone of which it was composed was worked up into a Baptist 
church on the corner of Broome and Elizabeth streets, to which the con- 
gregation soon after removed. 

Two other churches of this denomination were founded near the end 
of the eighteenth century, one in Oliver street, in 1795, and rebuilt in 1819, 
afterward known as the Third Baptist Church, and another in Rose street, 
built of brick in 1799, and afterward known as the Fourth Baptist Church. 

147 



148 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

With the breaking of the century the denomination began to increase 
in numbers, so that from 1805 to 1824 ten more churches were built, and 
numbered. The Fifth Baptist Church was founded in 1805, in Anthony 
street (now Worth); the Sixth, in 1806, in Broome street; the Seventh, in 
1809, and rebuilt in 1817, in Mulberry street; the Eighth, in 1810, in 
Vandam street; the Ninth, in 1818, in York street; the Tenth, in 1819, in 
Delancey street; the Second, in 1824, in Nassau street, between John and 
Fulton streets; the Eleventh, in 1825, in Provost street (now Franklin); 
the Twelfth, in the Bowery, opposite Spring street, and the Thirteenth, in 
Broome street, between Lewis and Cannon streets. 

The Methodists were unknown in New York until 1766. Early in this 
year a few families came, and with them a local preacher from Ireland, the 
Rev. Philip Embury. Soon after his arrival he began to hold services in his 
own house, and afterward rented a room in the soldiers' barracks. During 
the early winter Thomas Webb, a captain in the British Army, and also a 
Methodist minister, stationed at Albany as barrack master, came to New 
York and preached in uniform in the street. It was such an unusual occur- 
rence that a large number gathered to listen to him, and it also increased 
the desire of Embury to procure a place in which to hold services. A loft 
in Horse and Cart Lane (now William street) was rented, and here the 
Methodist Church in New York had its foundation. For two years this 
place was occupied by the disciples of Wesley. In 1768 the society outgrew 
the humble tenement, and a lot was purchased in John street, near Nassau 
street, on which a little edifice was built 62 feet long and 4 2 wide. It was 
the first Methodist church in America, and was christened Wesley Chapel. 
When the first Methodist conference in America was convened at Philadel- 
phia, in 1773, it was reported that the New York church had one hundred 
and eighty members. In 1784 the Methodist Episcopal Church was regularly 
established in New York. 

In 1817 Wesley Chapel was removed to Harlem, and a neat, substantial 
building of stone, 78 by 62 feet, was erected on its site. The record says: 
"It is built in the modern fashion, with the pews sloping from the rear of 
the house down to the pulpit, which is low and separated by a mahogany 
railing." The Second Methodist Church was founded in 1789, in Forsyth 
street, and was built of stone; the Third, in 1797, in Duane street, also of 
stone; the Fourth, in 1800, for Africans, and rebuilt in 1820, in Church 
street; the Fifth, in 1806, in Mott street; the Sixth, in 1809, in Allen 
street; the Seventh and Eighth, in the same year, the first in Bedford 
street and the second in Elizabeth street, for Africans; the Ninth, in 1818, 
in Broome street; the Tenth, or Bowery Village, Church (now the Seventh 
Street Church), in 1818, in what was known as Nicholas William Street 
(once parallel with Stuyvesant street, but now blotted out); the Eleventh, 
or Wesleyan Seminary, in 1820, in Crosby street; the Twelfth, in 1821, in 
Chrystie street; the Thirteenth, in 1825, in Delancey street; the Four- 
teenth, in 1826, in Willett street. 

The Moravians antedate the Baptists and Methodists in New York 
City. In 1736 two Moravian bishops from Germany, on their way to Penn- 
sylvania, visited the city, and were invited to hold services in the house 
of John Noble, an elder in the Wall Street Presbyterian Church. The elder 



CRADLE DAYS OP NFJV YORK. 



149 



became interested in the work of the bishops, and offered to enlist in their 
cause. They acquiesced, and Noble withdrew from the Presbyterian 
Church, and began to organize a society of believers in the work of the 
Moravian Church. Worship was held privately among those he gathered, 
but on the return of the bishops from Pennsylvania public services were 
held by a congregation of nine persons. About 1741 a colony of Mora- 
vians, on their way to Pennsylvania in charge of the founder of the Mora- 
vian Church in Germany, landed in New York and gave an impetus to the 
work of Elder Noble, so that the organization was in a permanent and 
flourishing condition when Count Zinzendorf and his party left the city. In 
1751 a church 44 by 34 feet was built in Fulton street, with a cemetery 
in the rear, but was taken down and rebuilt in 1829. In 1833 the work of 
widening Fulton street was begun, and it was found necessary to cut off 
eight feet of the building. In 1843 a new edifice was erected on the corner 
of Houston and Mott streets, and the Fulton street structure was removed 
and the lot sold. 

The first Friend, or Quaker, preached in New York in 1672, though 
in 1658 two women of a party of Quakers who had been expelled from 
New England earnestly gave vent to their belief in the streets, and were 
arrested and taken to the prison in the fort. After being examined they 
were placed on board a ship bound for Rhode Island. 

The Quakers fared poorly under Stuyvesant, according to their records. 
One of them, Robert Hodgson, went to Hempstead, intending to preach. 
He was arrested, and a message was sent to Stuyvesant, who ordered him 
brought before him. After being examined his Bible and papers were taken 
from him, and he was tied in a painful position for twenty-four hours. Two 
women who had entertained him were also arrested and tied into a cart to 
the back of which the preacher was fastened with his head downward, and 
in this position the three were conveyed through the streets to prison. 
"Hodgson was tried and sentenced to two years' hard labor with a negro at 
the wheelbarrow, or to pay a fine of £50. Unable to pay the fine, he was 
ordered chained to the wheelbarrow; but, being unused to work, could not 
comply with the order to move. A tarred rope was then plied on his back 
by a negro until he fell exhausted. He was lifted up, and again beaten 
until he fainted, and was then thrown into his cell in the dungeon. The 
third day he was brought before Stuyvesant, who told him he must work; 
that he would be whipped every day until he did. The preacher asked what 
law he had broken to warrant his being punished in such a brutal manner. 
For answer he was again confined for three days without anything to eat 
or drink. No symptoms of surrendering being apparent, he was taken to a 
private room, stripped to the waist and suspended from the ceiling by his 
hands, with a heavy log of wood fastened to his feet, and was again lashed 
by a negro until his flesh was cut to pieces. He begged to see some person 
of his own country, and an Englishwoman was sent to him, who bathed 
his wounds, and then informed her husband of his condition. He interceded 
for the preacher and offered to give a fat ox to the sheriff if he were per- 
mitted to remove Hodgson to his house. The sheriff refused his offer and 
told him the whole fine would have to be paid before mercy could be shown 
to the preacher. The story of the brutal work was noised around, and. 



ISO CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

reaching the Governor's sister, Mrs. Bayard, caused her to interfere, with 
the result that Hodgson was released, but in an almost dying condition." 

In 1661 a proclamation of "conditions and privileges" was scattered 
through the British Kingdom at the instance of the Holland States Gen- 
eral, telling the glories of New Netherland and assuring "persons of tender 
conscience" that they would he protected in their right of worship. But 
this was not for the Quakers. They were still to be persecuted. It was not 
until 1685 that they obtained recognition, and then only through the advo- 
cacy of Penn, who found gracious treatment at the hands of King James. 

During Cornbury's administration of affairs in 1702 "liberty of con- 
science was granted to all persons except papists, and the solemn affirmation 
of the Quakers was to be taken instead of an oath," but special care was 
to be exercised by him "that God Almighty be devoutly and duly served." 
Two years later the first meeting house of the Quakers was 
established in Green Street Alley, between Liberty street and Maiden Lane, 
and was afterward removed to Liberty street. In 1775 they erected a house 
of brick in Pearl street, between Franklin Square and Oak street, which 
was taken down in 1824 to make room for other buildings. At the end of 
the first quarter of the nineteenth century they had three places of wor- 
ship — in Hester street, built in 1819; in Rose street, built in 1824, and in 
Manhattanville, built in 1825. 

Market and Orchard streets were at one time occupied wholly by the 
Quakers. The latter street was then the garden spot of the city, with com- 
fortable houses, set in with trees and shrubbery. As George street in the 
old days, Market street had an evil repute, and became an eyesore to the 
Quakers. Appeal was mad6 to the city authorities to change its condition, 
but it received no answer. The Quakers adopted their own measures of 
reform of buying the entire property, rebuilding some of the houses and 
purifying all of them. They then changed the name of the street to Market, 
and made it a haven of social rest in whose vicinity refinement reigned. ^ 

A record of two hundred and twenty-four years ago says: "The Jews' 
petition to the Governor [Dongan] for liberty to exercise their religion, 
being by him recommended to the Mayor and Aldermen, was read in Com- 
mon Council, and they returned their opinion thereupon, 'That noe pub- 
lique worship is tolerated, by act of Assembly, but to those that professe 
faith in Christ, and therefore, the Jews' worship not to be allowed.' " The 
foregoing is the first mention of the Jews in the old city, though they 
were, no doubt, a part of its life twenty years prior to the date of the 
record. At that time, as to-day, their worship was devoid of ostentation. 
Even when an attempt was made to draw them into the maelstrom incident 
to religious intolerance with the promise of recognition for themselves, it 
was met with rebuffs. In 1728 is a record of "a lot of ground granted to 
the Jews for a burying ground, near the cripple bush or swamp, 112 feet 
long and 50 broad, situated opposite Chatham Square, corner of Fayette 
street" — then a long distance out of the city — and two years later a record 
of the building of a synagogue in Mill street, near the junction of the pres- 
ent Beaver and Broad streets. In 1738 they were disfranchised in a peculiar 
way. Adolph Philipse had been Speaker of the House for twelve years, but 
lost his seat in the general election of 1737. The following year, at a special 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



151 



election held to fill a vacancy caused by the death of one of the members, 
Philipse contested the election with the son of the deceased member, and 
was elected. The opponent entered a complaint against the sheriff of 
dishonesty in counting the votes, and his examination was ordered. He was 
acquitted of fraud, and the candidates were directed to exchange lists of 
questionable electors. The qualification of the Jews as electors was denied 
by the attorney for the complaining candidate, and the opposing counsel 
urged the "authority of the law which gave the suffrage to all free-holders 
of competent estates, not excepting 'the descendants of Abraham, according 
to the flesh.' " The debate lasted for three days, but the House, before 
which the proceedings took place, decided that Jews could not vote, and it 
was some years after that that the right to vote was given to them. 

At the time the Mill street congregation was established few of the 
members lived above Wall street. In the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, with the increase in the commercial growth of the city and the 
continued arrival of Jews from Europe, the erection of a new temple be- 
came necessary, and a building formerly used as an African church, in Elm 
street, north of Canal, was purchased and fitted up by the German and 
Polish Jews. These were the only places of worship up to 1830. 






1 ! ^ t 



igi't'- ~' "ft 



/ ll I ■ 



'4V 










CHAPTER XXXI. 



Religions — Roman Catholic. 



Advent of the Sect in the City — Great Intolerance Shown to It — Opening 

of a Latin School — Liberty of Conscience Granted 

to All Except "Papists." 

It would be easier to write the history of the Catholic denomination in 
the city of New York after 1825 than prior to that date, as the Church has 
been wofully lax in the keeping of records. 

This may be attributed to two causes: First, the non-toleration, under 
the Dutch, of any religion but the Calvinist, and, second, the proscription, 
under British rule, with the exception of the period of the Dongan adminis- 
tration, of Catholicity and Catholic worship under penalty of the law. 
Other religious bodies v/ere subject to certain intolerant rules during both 
administrations, and, as has been told in the short histories of the denomina- 
tions, members of them were punished for the infraction of these rules, but 
no statute law existed prohibiting the entrance into the colony of any 
other sect but the Catholic. 

As far back as 1643, twenty-eight years after the settlement was 
founded, it is recorded that the Dutch ransomed from the Mohawks one 
Father Isaac Joques, who had been a slave in the tribe for nearly a year, 
and brought him to their settlement, and that there he found two of his 
own faith; that after the departure of this priest for Holland, another, the 
Rev. Francis Joseph Bressani, v/ho had also fallen into the hands of the 
Indians, was rescued by the Dutch and brought to New Amsterdam. No 
record exists, however, of either having performed priestly functions. 

Under the administration of the Duke of York in 1664 no person who 
professed Christianity was "to be molested, fined or imprisoned for differing 
in opinion on matters of religion," and the new colony was opened to the 
Catholics, but few of the sect were in New York to avail themselves of the 
new order of things. In 1674 Governor Andros arrived, and with him, as 
Lieutenant Governor, came Anthony Brockholls, a Lancashire Catholic. The 
Lieutenant Governor interested himself in the affairs of his religion, and 
sought to increase the number of its worshippers in the colony. Through 
him a few Catholic settlers arrived, and petitions were made to the Jesuit 
missionaries on the Chesapeake to extend their mission to New York, which 
they did for a time. "With the advent of Governor Dongan, a Catholic, in 
1683, religious toleration was still further extended, and a Catholic mis- 
sion was organized, consisting of Father Henry Harrison and Father Charles 
Gage, with two lay brothers. They were to minister to the Catholics in the 
province and to replace the French missionaries among the Indians. For 

152 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



153 



the use of the Governor and his household and the small body of Catholics 
in the city a room was fitted up as a chapel in his house in the fort, and 
here the first worship took place. In 1684, on the grounds now occupied 
by Trinity Church, a Latin school was opened by the Jesuits — the first edu- 
cational institution of the kind in the city, and presumably under the con- 
trol of Father Thomas Harvey, who accompanied Dongan from England. 

The peaceful exercise by Catholics of their religion was destined to be 
of short duration, however, a religious ferment took possession 
of the English people when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, 
in 1685, and they began to scrutinize the acts of King James in 
officering with Roman Catholics, in defence of law, a large military force 
which he had ordered to be organized. New York caught the alarm, and a 
rumor was started, based on the establishment of the Latin school, that 
Governor Dongan had been ordered to establish the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion in the colony. The citizens became alarmed, removed many of their 
children from the school and sent them to schools in New England. Don- 
gan's Catholic officers were closely watched, and all confidence in the 
Governor was passing away. A change, however, was taking place at this 
time in the affairs of New England and New York, at the instance of 
James, which served to abate the suspicion of the people. He resolved to 
unite his colonies under one viceregal government, with either Dongan or 
Andros, who in 1686 had been commissioned to the supreme command of 
New England, in control. Dongan, "who had given more advice and shown 
more official zeal than was agreeable to the politicians surrounding James," 
was retired and offered a major generalship of artillery in the British 
Army, which he refused, and Andros received the appointment. New York 
was deeply humiliated with the loss of her provincial individuality, but 
those of her citizens who were Protestants rejoiced in the change of Gov- 
ernors, as Sir Edmund Andros was of the Church of England. No change 
of note occurred in the religious affairs of the colony under the Governor- 
ship of Nicholson, who was Lieutenant Governor under Andros, until the 
news arrived of the downfall of James and the accession of William and 
Mary to the throne. Rejoicing over the severance of the bond between New 
England and herself, which occurred in May, 1689, New York plunged 
headlong into intense devotion to a Dutch prince and became again intol- 
erant of Catholicism and intrenched in prejudice. The Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, even, though a consistent Episcopalian, was suspected to be a tool of 
the dethroned James and secretly at work in his interest, and many sup- 
posed that the leading Dutch citizens were going over to Catholicism. On 
May 15 it was reported that ex-Governor Dongan was the instigator of an 
infernal plot to destroy New York, and shortly after an unsigned petition 
was presented to Colonel Bayard asking that the Roman Catholics in the 
city be disarmed, though at the time they were few in either city or 
province, and there were not twenty among the soldiers. Mayor Van Cort- 
landt, suspecting who the authors of the petition were, sent for them to 
come and sign their names. They refused, and demanded an answer in 
writing or the return of their petition. The answer was given to them ver- 
bally "that their wishes would be respected," and the petition was re- 
turned. Then followed the Leisler incident. 



154 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

In 16 91 V/illiam ordained a government for New York which continued 
substantially in operation for nearly a century. To the new Governor, 
Sloughter, orders were given to grant liberty of conscience to all peaceable 
inhabitants "except papists," and to annul the "Charter of Liberties," by 
which religious tolerance was given to the people. Catholics were no longer 
safe in the city, and those of the faith who had means removed to other 
parts of the country, while those without means found it necessary for their 
safety to show no outward evidence of their faith. In a report transmitted 
to England in 1696 by Governor Fletcher it was stated that there were nine 
Catholics in New York City, and, "that these as well as other members of 
their faith in other parts of the colony should be away from priestly inter- 
vention," in 1700, under the Governorship of Lord Bellamont and through 
his influence, the New York Legislature passed a law prohibiting the 
entrance of any Catholic priest "within the colony of its limits, as claimed 
by England." A heavy punishment was set down in the law for violation of 
it. Enactments were also made prohibiting Catholics holding office or 
voting for any civil or other position in the colony. From this time for a 
large number of years the history of the Catholic Church in New York is lost 
in darkness or, on account of the penal laws, was never written. 

In 1741 the Negro Plot occurred, and as some Irish Catholics had ar- 
rived a short time previously to it, it was supposed that they had lent their 
aid to the negroes in the plot to burn the city. "Ignorance and illiberal pre- 
judice universally prevailed," says the historian of the event, "and it is 
hoped that the veil of filial affection will be drawn over the errors of our 
forefathers." 

In 1756 Bishop Challoner, of London, describing the condition of his 
transatlantic flock, said of New York: "If there be any straggling Catho- 
licks, they can have no exercise of their religion, as no priests ever come 
near them; nor to judge by what appears to be the present disposition of 
the inhabitants, are ever like to be admitted amongst them." At the time 
written of the Catholic settlements of America were looked upon as "appur- 
tenances or appendixes of the English mission," and the "Vicars-Apostolic of 
London since the time of James II always had authority over the English 
colonies and islands in America." 

In 1764 we find that on the death of the Rev. Theodore Schneider, 
founder of the German Catholic congregation in Philadelphia, the Rev. 
Ferdinand Farmer, of the Catholic mission in Pennsylvania, was appointed 
to take charge of his field and also to minister to the Catholics in New 
Jersey, and that he extended his labors to New York and ministered to a 
little congregation worshipping in the house of a German co-religionist in 
Wall street. At what precise date he labored in the city it is impossible to 
tell. His work was carried on secretly, however, as an act was in existence 
up to and during the Revolution prohibiting the presence of a Catholic 
priest within the limits of the colony. 

In the New York convention of 1777, for the framing of a constitu- 
tion, Catholicism was attacked by John Jay in an amendment offered by 
him to the section on naturalization, as follows: That the person applying 
for naturalization be required to "abjure and renounce all allegiance and 
subjection to all and every foreign king, prince, potentate and state in all 



I 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 155 

matters ecclesiastical and civil," and, though earnestly opposed, was car- 
ried. By it Catholics could not be naturalized until they renounced subjec- 
tion to the Pope in ecclesiastical affairs. Another amendment was offered 
by Jay when the section on toleration came up — "that the Legislature have 
power at any time to deny toleration to any sect or denomination." This 
excited so much debate that he withdrew it and offered another, "except the 
professors of the religion of the Church of Rome, who ought not to hold 
any lands or be admitted to a participation of the civil rights enjoyed by the 
members of this State, until such time as the said professors shall appear in 
the Supreme Court of this State, and there most solemnly swear that they 
verily believe in their consciences that no pope, priest or foreign authority 
on earth hath power to absolve the subjects of this state from 
their allegiance to the same. And further, that they renounce 
and believe to be false and wicked the dangerous and damnable 
doctrine that the Pope, or any other earthly authority, hath power to ab- 
solve men from their sins, described in and prohibited by the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ; and particularly that no pope, priest or foreign authority on 
earth hath power to absolve them from the obligation of this oath." This 
amendment was defeated, though another one introduced by Jay and not so 
broadly put was carried, which contained these words as an introduction to 
the free exercise of worship within the State: "And whereas, we are re- 
quired by the benevolent principles of rational liberty, not only to expel 
civil tyranny, but also to guard against that spiritual oppression and in- 
tolerance wherewith the bigotry and ambition of weak and wicked princes 
have scourged mankind, this convention," etc. The legislature adopted 
Jay's idea, and worded the oath of office in conformity with his suggestion, 
so that Catholics £i-om abroad were prevented from becoming naturalized 
as citizens of New York State. 

The prohibition of citizenship and the exercise of priestly functions was 
also extended, before the Revolution, to the printing of Catholic books in 
the State, which at that time contained a little over a thousand worshippers. 
But with the establishment of peace a change occurred, and the Catholics 
of the city resolved to worship publicly. The Rev. Ferdinand Farmer, who 
left after the fire of 1776, came openly to the city and organized a little 
body of eighteen communicants, holding services in the house of one of the 
members. In October, 1784, the Rev. Charles Whelan, who had been a 
chaplain in the French service, arrived in New York, and was invited by 
the Catholics to minister to them. He consented, and, without waiting for 
faculties, took up the burden which the venerable Ferdinand Farmer had 
borne so long. A place in which to worship permanently was sought, but 
the little community at the time were without sufficient money to purchase 
anything suitable, and had to be satisfied to meet wherever they could. 
In April, 1785, application was made to the city authorities by the French 
Consul, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, for permission to use the Exchange, 
in Broad street, then occupied, as a temporary place in which to worship. 
It was not granted, and the Catholics resolved to secure ground and erect 
a church. On June 10, 1785, the consul and three other persons formed a 
corporation known as "the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church in the 
City of New York," under the law for the incorporation of religious societies, 



156 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

which had been passed a short time previously, and proceeded to obtain a site 
for a church. During the summer they secured a lease of five lots in 
Barclay street, extending to Church street, on which a carpenter shop stood, 
and established a temporary church building for the Catholics of New 
York City. In August Trinity Church, which owned the fee, agreed to 
sell them the reversion on easy terms, and on October 5, 1785, the corner- 
stone of a church was laid with appropriate ceremonies. They were not 
able, through lack of funds, to proceed with the work of building, so that 
it was not until November 4, 1786, that the church was dedicated, the Rev. 
Andrew Nugent, a Capuchin, offering the first mass in it, Father Whelan 
having retired in the preceding February. In 1787 the Rev. William 
O'Brien succeeded Father Nugent, and continued as pastor for many years. 

It was apparent in 1809 that this church, St. Peter's, was 
not adequate for the continually increasing number of Catholics, 
and a movement was started to found a church in honor of 
the patron saint of Ireland. The project was entered into warmly, 
and a subscription list was opened to buy ground and to pay 
for the erection of a church. The site selected was outside the city 
limits at the time, and surrounded by hills and meadows. On June 8, 1809, 
the cornerstone was laid of old St. Patrick's, in what is now Mott street. 
The work on the building went on slowly, and it was not until 1815 that it 
was ready for divine service. On May 4 of that year it was dedicated with 
impressive ceremonies, and was considered the finest church edifice in the 
United States. The first ordination of a priest in the city took place in the 
church in 1815, that of the Rev. Michael O'Gorman. 

In 18 27 Christ Church, in Ann street, was purchased and rededicated 
as a Catholic church. From authentic sources the Catholic population at 
this time was about twenty-five thousand, composed mainly of persons who 
had emigrated from Ireland, though there were enough of German extraction 
to require services in the German language. The next twelve years saw a 
great addition to the growth of the church in New York City, as out of a 
total of 343,517 persons arriving at New York from foreign countries 151,- 
672 were from Ireland alone, and then the "Irish vote" began to count in 
politics, which resulted in the repeal of the obnoxious religious intolerance 
laws, the historical remembrance of which has almost been swept away 
through the advance of education and enlightenment. - 

New York City was made the see of a Catholic diocese in 1808, and 
the Rev. Richard Luke Concanen, of the Order of St. Dominic, was conse- 
crated bishop at Rome on April 24 of that year to preside over it. The 
bishop left Rome on June 3, for Leghorn, where he hoped to find a vessel 
for some port in the United States. The French were in possession of 
Leghorn and had sequestered American vessels because they had been 
visited by English cruisers, so that it was impossible for him to start for 
his new see. He returned to Rome, and in April, 1810, made another 
attempt to reach the colonies. He arrived in Naples, and succeeded in 
securing passage on a vessel bound for Salem, Mass., which was to start on 
June 17. His passports were declared unsatisfactory by the Board of Police 
at Naples, and he was ordered not to embark. This action depressed him 
greatly, and caused an attack of fever, from which he died on the following 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 157 

day. Father Anthony Kohlmann was appointed to administer the affairs of 
the diocese until his successor was appointed. On November 6, 1815 
Bishop Concanen's successor, the Right Rev. John Connolly, was' conse- 
crated at Rome, and arrived in New York eighteen days afterward, finding 
in his new diocese nearly seventeen thousand Catholics. >i 




CHAPTER XXXII. 



(1788) 

Yellow Fever Scourge Causes Agitation for Drinking Water Supply — 

Aaron Burr's Scheme — The Tea Water Pump — Building of Croton 

Aqueduct, Central Park Reservoir and High Bridge. 

With the possible exception of the year in which independence was 
proclaimed, no other year in the eighteenth century was so fraught with 
good for the citizens of New York as the year with which we continue our 
chronology, 1798. While it opened inauspiciously, the seat of government 
being removed to Albany, leaving the city neither a State nor a federal cap- 
ital, and while the scourge of yellow fever was again felt by the inhabitants 
from the middle of the year until its end, two movements for the benefit of 
the people of the city were inaugurated — the procuring of water for drink- 
ing purposes and the application of steam as a propulsive power on water. 
We will treat of the first of these movements. 

'' Under Stuyvesant three public wells were ordered sunk in the middle 
of three streets in the populous part of the town, where, in case of fire, 
the water could be easily obtained. The water was not intended for drinking 
purposes, as the drainage and rainwater that ran through the centre of the 
street poured into the wells and made their contents dangerous to the 
health of the inhabitants. On occasions when the flow from private wells 
temporarily ceased no other recourse was left to the people but to use the 
water from the public wells. In 1701 four more of these were sunk, in 
Broadway, Broad street, and Wall street, with the hope that better water 
would be obtained, though it was found to be brackish and not suitable 
for drinking purposes. Movement after movement was started by the 
citizens, when the scourges of yellow fever which attacked the city at 
different periods had passed, to find the cause, and all ended in inaction. 
Of all the wells in use, only one — and it was outside the limits of habitation, 
at what is now the corner of Park Row and Roosevelt street — afforded 
pure, cool and palatable water. Its supply was apparently inexhaustible, 
but being, it was said, outside the limits caused much trouble to the 
people to procure a part of it when it was most needed. The enterprising 
mind of some one grappled with the problem, a pump was put into it, and 
its product was drawn into casks and carried to the doors of the citizens, 
where it was sold to them at a penny a half cask. It was afterward called 
the Tea Water Pump, a name which is to a degree self-explanatory. 

In 1774 the initial step was taken by Christopher Colles toward sup- 
plying the city with water. Under his direction a reservoir was constructed 
at the public expense on the east side of Broadway, between Pearl and White 

158 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 159 

streets, on two acres of ground purchased by the corporation from Augustus 
and Frederick Van Cortlandt, at the rate of £600 an acre. Into this 
reservoir water was raised from large wells sunk on the premises, and also 
from the Collect, and distributed by means of wooden pipes throughout 
the city. The supply proved insufficient, the water was of an inferior 
quality, and in the ensuing foreign occupation of the city the enterprise 
was neglected, and the citizens returned to the wells of their ancestors, 
which still continued to be located in the middle of the streets. 

When the yellow fever broke out violently in July, 1798, and business 
was suspended and schools and churches closed, the farmers even ceasing 
to bring their products to the market because of alarm, the citizens con- 
sidered that the time had arrived for quick action regarding the evidently 
bad condition of the city's water, and, with a death list of over two thousand 
confronting them, appealed to the corporation for the appointment of a 
committee of inquiry. A preliminary report was made to the 
corporation by a Dr. Brown, who affirmed the impurity of the water 
on the island and recommended the appointment of a competent engineer 
to investigate and report a feasible plan to bring in water from 
the mainland. On his recommendation an English engineer named Watson 
was appointed, who recommended the raising of the Rye Ponds to a reservoir 
in Westchester County, the mills to be located on the Bronx River, "where 
the surplus water would be used in raising the water, which would thence 
be carried to the Harlem River in an open canal, then conveyed across the 
river through an elevated iron pipe to a reservoir, where it would be filtered, 
and then distributed through the city." 

In January, 1799, "a large and respectable committee of the Citizens, 
Physicians and of the corporation was appointed to inquire into the causes 
of the late pestilence, and in two long and able reports on the subject 
enumerated the following causes: Deep, damp cellars and filthy sunken 
yards; unfinished water lots; burial grounds in the compact part of the 
city; narrow streets; sailors' boarding houses and tippling shops; digging 
up made ground; putrid substances being allowed to remain in streets 
and houses, and the want of an adequate supply of pure and wholesome 
water." 

When the report of this "large and respectable committee" was sub- 
mitted to the authorities, shrewd men presented various schemes to meet 
the emergencies that confronted the people. One of these men was Aaron 
Burr, who was planning to extricate New York from the hands of Hamilton 
and the Federalists, the first step being his own election to the Assembly. 
Burr was anxious for influence to that end, and knew that among a certain 
class of men the more publicity was given to his movement the more he 
would be talked of and consequently the more prominent he would become. 
He also had in view the power wielded by Hamilton in the only two banks 
in the city, which were considered Hamilton's creation, and through which 
he supposed discounts were influenced by political consideration. "Taking 
advantage of the investigations regarding the cause of the terrible ravages 
of yellow fever in the city and of the impression that the brackish wells 
contributed largely to the spread of the pestilence. Burr adroitly organized 
a company for the ostensible purpose of supplying the city with pure and 



i6o CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

wholesome water, but which was to use and exercise all the privileges of a 
bank. In applying to the legislature for a charter authority was asked to 
raise $2,000,000, although it was uncertain how much money was needed. 
As the amount named might possibly be too much, the projectors proposed 
to insert in the charter a provision that 'the surplus capital might be 
employed in any way not inconsistent with the laws and Constitution of 
the United States or of the State of New York.' " While under discussion 
it was proposed in the Senate to strike out of the bill this clause. Burr 
objected, saying that the supplying a city of fifty thousand inhabitants with 
water would not of itself remunerate the stockholders, and that it was 
intended to give the directors liberty to found anything they wanted — an 
East Indian Company, a bank, or anything else. None except those in the 
secret knew that the name Manhattan Company meant Manhattan Bank. 
The bill was referred to the Chief Justice of the State, who recommended 
its rejection because of the unlimited powers conferred by the surplus 
clause. These objections were overruled, and Governor Jay signed the bill. 
The papers of the day attacked the Governor, Burr and all who were con- 
cerned in the scheme, and Burr lost his election to the Assembly. After 
the company was formed it obtained a grant from the corporation of the 
grounds formerly occupied by Colles, and, erecting a reservoir in Chambers 
street, between Broadway and Centre street, pumped water into it from 
wells sunk in the vicinity, whence it was distributed by means of bored logs 
through the city. The company soon tired of this scheme, as did the people 
of the bad water, and turned its attention to the banking business. No 
•record exists of this company having even attempted to bring water into 
the city. "^ 

Again the people had to return to the Tea Water Pump, whose water 
appeared to taste sweeter than ever, and in emergencies to the brackish 
water of the other wells on the island. But new schemes were not wanting 
for supplying the city with water, such as cutting an open canal to the 
Housatonic River, in Connecticut, or obtaining water from the Passaic 
River, in New Jersey, or boring artesian wells. None of them was adopted, 
however. Some one called attention to the Croton River, flowing into the 
Hudson near the old Van Cortlandt Manor House, forty miles above the 
city. It offered special advantages, as it traversed a region where ten or 
more natural lakes might at any time be brought into service. In 1834 
surveys were ordered of this region and estimates made of the cost to the 
city of supplying it with water from this point. Among the commissioners 
was an alderman from the Second Ward named Samuel Stevens, who, after 
the report of the commission was made public, persevered intelligently for 
the fulfilment of his idea to bring good water in abundance into every 
home. Some of the other commissioners favored the Bronx scheme before 
spoken of. 

At last a board of engineers reported in favor of an aqueduct fifteen 
miles long to take Croton water near the mouth of the river, and deliver 
thirty million gallons daily at a distributing reservoir on Murray Hill. It 
was a much bolder plan than the one proposed in 1798, but the principle 
was the same — an aqueduct to the Harlem River; across this by a lofty 
bridge; then to the distributing reservoir. As the cost of such a system 



CRADLE DAYS Of NEW YORK. i6i 

would run into the millions, the legislature ordered a vote of the people 
in 1835 to decide whether the work should be done. A large majority 
favored the scheme, but a few murmured at the cost. At the end of the 
yea,r, however, the great fire occurred, and was an object lesson to the 
grumblers of the imperfect condition of their so-called water system. Every 
one agreed that the work should be started at once, and engineers staked 
out Croton Lake and laid the course of the aqueduct from the dam to the 
Harlem. They then built a dam across the Croton River and made a basin 
capable of holding five hundred millions of gallons, covering four hundred 
acres of land. 'An aqueduct was constructed down to the Harlem River, 
carrying the healing streams by tunnels through rocks and hills and upon 
embankments across valleys and intervening streams, and across the Harlem 
was thrown the present High Bridge. This bridge struck the island at 
the present One Hundred and Seventy-fourth street. Later a small reservoir 
was built here for Harlem houses. The water was brought to the open air 
for the first time after its journey of forty miles in a reservoir placed at 
what was supposed would be Sixth avenue and Eighty-sixth street, but 
which location was taken in by Central Park, where it may be seen." 

On June 22, 1842, the work was practically completed from the Croton 
to the distributing reservoir at Fifth avenue and Forty-second street, except 
that, High Bridge not being finished, the water was carried for the time 
being by syphon pipes under the Harlem River. Celebrations by the people 
were now the order of the day. On June 22 water was for the first time 
let into the canal, or conduit, and a little boat of special design, called the 
Croton Maid, holding four persons, was sent through its entire length for 
the purpose of a thorough inspection. On June 27 water was admitted 
to the receiving reservoir, at Eighty-sixth street, in the presence of the 
Governor of the State and the city dignitaries, and on July 4, with suitable 
ceremonies, into the distributing reservoir on Murray Hill. On October 14, 
1842, a monster celebration took place, the like of which was not surpassed 
in the city's history up to that time. The whole population was given a 
chance to express its delight at the work which man had bestowed on it. 
The State officials were again present, with foreign consuls, mayors of other 
cities and dignitaries of the nation. In that part of City Hall Park given 
over to the postoffice a splendid and ingeniously arranged fountain had been 
placed, with a large pipe and eighteen smaller ones in its centre, through 
which, by shifting the plate of the conduit pipe, the water could be made 
to assume different shapes. After the president of the water commission 
had made a formal transfer of the aqueduct to the city, and artillery 
thundered in honor of the event, the fountain was set playing sixty feet 
into the air, and for two hours a procession indicating by fioats the interest 
which each trade or profession took in the enterprise completed passed the 
reviewing stand. It may be well to mention that nothing but Croton 
water was served at the reception given by the city authorities at the 
City Hall. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



(1798) 

The First Steamboat — Monopoly of Hudson Traffic Granted to Robert R. 

Livingston — His Craft a Failure — Fulton and the Clermont's 

First Trip to Albany — First Steam Ferryboats. 

The second movement inaugurated in 1798 for the benefit of the 
people was the application of steam as a propulsive power on water. At 
the first session of the legislature held that year Chancellor Robert R. 
Livingston, who had sailed around the Collect the previous year in Fitch's 
boat, appeared before the body with a plan for "applying the steam engine 
in such a way as to propel a boat." As the experiment would be expensive, 
he wanted the assurance of the legislature that in the event of its proving 
successful he would be protected in whatever advantages were derived from 
the operation of his scheme. While the members of the House listened 
with apparent interest to the Chancellor's viev/s on steam propelled boats, 
when the bill to protect him in his rights was introduced by his friend, Dr. 
Samuel L. Mitchell, they received its reading with laughter, and some of 
them with ridicule. The bill's sponsor was as much interested in the ulti- 
mate success of Chancellor Livingston's experiment as the Chancellor was, 
and persisted in pushing the bill until it was either accepted or rejected. 
The House played with it for a while, and made sport of Dr. Mitchell, but 
eventually, believing in his sincerity, passed an act which gave to Judge 
Livingston "the exclusive right and privilege of navigating all kinds of boats 
which might be propelled by the force of fire or steam, on all the waters 
within the territory or jurisdiction of the State of New York for a term 
of twenty years from the passing of the act — upon condition that he should 
within a twelvemonth build such a boat, the mean of whose progress should 
not be less than four miles an hour." 

The Chancellor prior to the passage of the act had made an agreement 
with Nicholas Roosevelt, of the old New York family, and Colonel John 
Stevens to build a boat on joint account, the engines for which were to be 
constructed by Roosevelt at his shop on the Passiac, the propelling agency to 
be planned by Livingston, with the co-operation of Stevens. It was because 
of the promising signs of success that the protection of the legislature was 
sought. However, on October 21, 1798, the craft was completed and ready 
for the trial trip. It proved a failure. Later Stevens persuaded the Chan- 
cellor to put a set of paddles in the stern, with the result that the craft 
on which Livingston had built his hopes was shaken to pieces and was 
abandoned. The Chancellor was not easily beaten, however. A few years 
later he was the accredited minister plenipotentiary of the United States 

162 



CRADLE DAYS OF XEIV YORK. 16.1 

to France, and became acquainted with Robert Fulton. Fulton in 1785 
was known only as a miniature portrait painter in New York, and had gone 
over to Europe to study art with Benjamin West. In his trips among the 
rural mansions of the nobility to study, at West's suggestion, the master- 
pieces possessed by many of them, he made the acquaintance of the Earl 
of Bridgewater, then interested in England's canal system. During his 
intercourse with the earl Fulton found that his tastes lay more toward 
civil engineering than toward art, and adopted the former profession. His 
successful experiments began to be mooted throughout the Continent, and 
one of them, with submarine torpedoes and torpedo boats, created so much 
anxiety in the minds of the officials of the English government that they 
hastened to acquaint themselves with all his doings. 

When Fulton called upon Chancellor Livingston he found him receptive 
regarding his scheme to construct a steamboat, whose trial trip was to take 
place on the Seine. Work was begun on the craft, and it was completed 
in 1803. The first trial resulted in the boat going to the bottom of the 
river because its hull was not able to sustain the weight of the machinery. 
It was taken up and reconstructed, and another trial proved successful. The 
Chancellor saw at once that Fulton's idea or model was better than Fitch's 
or his own, and agreed to enter into partnership, Joel Barlow, a man of 
means, guaranteeing Fulton's share of the finances. In the mean time 
Livingston wrote home and procured an extension of the legislative act 
granted in 1798 by the State of New York, and thus secured the monopoly 
of the Hudson for a few years longer. He was convinced that a boat 
could be successfully moved by steam over the waters of New York, and 
from his large wealth was willing to give enough money to accomplish the 
result. Through his aid an engine was ordered built in England from 
plans which Fulton furnished, and in 1806 Fulton returned to New York 
to build the boat to contain it. The Chancellor could not stay in France 
while the work was under way, and resigned his mission in 1805, traveling 
for a few months on the Continent and reaching New York about the time 
the engine arrived at the shipyard of Brown Brothers, at the foot of East 
Houston street. , 

The building of the craft created great discussion, the possibility of its 
success was denied, and those who watched its construction were filled with 
incredulity. And it was a strangely constructed affair, 130 feet long, 18 
feet beam and 7 feet in depth, of 160 tons burden, with two masts, rigged 
for the purpose of carrying sails; a deckhouse pierced by windows and fitted 
up with twelve berths, the space at both ends of it open to the sky. When 
the machinery arrived it was put up piece by piece within the boat, the last 
of the fittings being a great iron pipe, which rose from the centre of the 
boat to the height of the masts, and two great wheels hung on either side 
like those in use in mills. 

The day for the trial trip arrived, and it was with evident reluctance 
that the persons invited by Fulton to participate were present. Very few 
believed the boat would ever reach its destination, and dire disaster was 
predicted by others. "Silent and uneasy, they stood around in groups when 
the signal was given to start. When the great, uncouth wheels, without 
any wheelboxes, stirred the water into a white foam and the boat moved 



i64 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

forward, many closed their eyes and waited for the moment when they 
would be either sent skyward or go down to the bottom of the river. The 
boat stopped suddenly, and the crowd lining the river bank shouted deri- 
sively to those on board. Fulton was evidently perplexed, and asked the 
indulgence of the passengers for half an hour, promising that if he could 
not remedy the trouble he would abandon the undertaking. He hurried 
below, found the cause to be the improper adjustment of some of the 
machinery, and quickly remedied it. After going a short distance the craft 
was headed homeward, and the trial trip was successful." 

On Friday, August 4, 1807, an advertisement appeared in the New 
York newspapers which astonished every one who read it. Fulton's craft, 
christened the Clermont, after Livingston's country seat on the Hudson, 
was announced to sail from the foot of Cortlandt street at half past 6 
o'clock on Monday morning, August 7, and would take passengers to Albany 
at $7 each. On the day of sailing all the berths had been taken, and 
thousands of people lined the shore in the vicinity of the dock to see the 
boat depart — some with hope, some with despair. When she moved out 
of the dock and reached mid-stream a burst of applause rent the air. On 
her way north she presented a strange spectacle, with immense columns of 
black smoke issuing from her tall smokestack, mingled with sparks and a 
cloud of ashes, and every now and then flames rising far in the air from the 
pine wood fuel she was being fed with. At dark this spectacle appalled the 
crews of other vessels, and many bowed the knee in prayer for protection. 
It surely presented to the uncouth mind of the farmer "the devil on his way 
to Albany in a sawmill." 

Fulton enjoyed his triumph as the speed increased and the new power 
which he had chained to his bidding bore him, in defiance of wind and tide, 
far from the city. At the country seat of Chancellor Livingston he stopped 
to take on wood, and continued his trip to Albany, which he reached in 
thirty-two hours, and thus secured the monopoly of steam navigation over 
the waters of New York. 

On Friday, August 11, the citizens were amazed to see the Clermont 
coming back again. They didn't believe she had made the trip to Albany, 
but Fulton published an offlcial and sworn statement in the newspapers that 
he had reached Clermont in exactly twenty-four hours, had rested there 
over night, and proceeded to Albany, which he reached in eight hours on 
Wednesday; that he started from Albany on Thursday at 9 A. M., stopped 
one hour at Clermont and proceeded to New York, accomplishing the trip 
of a hundred and fifty miles coming down in just thirty hours, fulfilling the 
terms of the act of the legislature. Within four years the Clermont was 
improved and enlarged, and its name changed to the North River. Two 
other boats were also added to what now was designated the Albany Line, 
the Car of Neptune and the Paragon, each larger than its predecessor and 
abounding in improvements. 

But Fulton's success was too marked, and his prosperity was watched 
by envious eyes. Legal difficulties touching his right exclusively to navigate 
the Hudson beset him. New Jersey claimed that it was too wide a privilege 
to be given by the legislature of a single State, and other inventors denied 
his having originated the idea of steam as a propulsive force on water. 



CRADLE DAYS OF XEIV YORK, 165 

Every kind of argument was used to invalidate Fulton's pretensions as an 
inventor of the steamboat. But he earned his fame justly, and all authori- 
ties agree that, at the time the trial trip of the Clermont took place, in no 
other part of the globe was another steamboat in successful operation. 

In the mean time one of the two associates of Chancellor Livingston, 
Colonel John Stevens, of Hoboken, was not idle. While Fulton was in 
Europe in 1804, Stevens built an open steamboat sixty-eight feet long, with 
a screw propeller, and the next year another one, with twin screws. So 
successful were the trial trips of these boats that he set about eclipsing the 
Fulton boat. He built the Phoenix, and launched her a few weeks after 
Fulton was hailed pioneer of steam propulsion on water. She made regular 
trips between New Brunswick and New York, but was prevented from 
showing her work in New York waters on account of the legislative act 
passed to protect Chancellor Livingston. To prove her capability, however, 
Robert Livingston Stevens, the colonel's son, made the passage with her 
from New York to Philadelphia by sea in the early summer of 1808, and ran 
her on the Delaware for a short time. 

With protests being constantly made to the courts against the monopoly 
held by Livingston and Fulton, it was not wondered at when the work of the 
legislature was nullified, and the field of steam navigation opened to all 
who had inventive talent. The Stevenses were not slow to take advantage 
of the new order of things, and a few years after some of their finest pro- 
ductions plied on the Hudson. 

A new method of communication between the islands adjacent to 
New York began to engross the attention of Fulton and Stevens in 1809. 
At this time the ferryboats, with two exceptions, were barges propelled by 
oars. The exceptions were boats which had been recently constructed, 
with wheels in the centre, turned by a horizontal treadmill worked by horses, 
and called horseboats. In October, 1811, Stevens put into operation the first 
steam ferryboat, which plied between New York and Hoboken, and was the 
first used in any part of the world. In 1812 Fulton built a small steam 
ferryboat for the Paulus Hook ferry, and before the following year had 
ended two other ferryboats were built to connect New York with Brooklyn. 

Here is an interesting question for historians: Was the name of Ful- 
ton's first boat the Clermont or Katherine of Clermont, so-called, it is said, 
in honor of Fulton's wife, who was a niece of Chancellor Livingston? 




CHAPTER XXXIV. 



(1798-1799.) 



History of Section from Ann Street to Pearl Street — ^Where Leisler and Mil- 
borne Were Buried — The Place of Execution — Catimut's Hill — 
First Day of Thanksgiving — Death of Washington. 

A most interesting history surrounds the locality bounded by Broad- 
way, Ann street, Pearl street, and the east side of the present Park Row. 
The first section, from Beekman street to Ann street, and from Park 
Row to Nassau street, was owned by Governor Dongan, and was known as 
the Governor's Garden, subsequently as the Vineyard. It was a place of 
public resort, or pleasure garden, until 1762, when the Dongan heirs sold it 
to Thomas White, who divided it into building lots. The first building 
occupied the lot on the corner of Ann street. It had a frontage of 49 feet 
on Park Row and a depth of 81 feet on Ann street, the occupant being 
Andrew Hopper, who had purchased it for £328 in 1773. The following 
year the street, "beginning at the house of Andrew Hopper, nearly opposite 
St. Paul's Church, and leading to the fresh water," was by ordinance named 
Chatham street, in compliment to the British earl for his advocacy of 
American interests. Up to the end of the war several small frame buildings 
were erected on this portion of Chatham street, and it was commonly known 
as Chatham Row. After the war footwalks were first laid upon it, and be- 
tween 1786 and 1796 sixteen parcels of property between Ann and Beek- 
man streets were sold at prices ranging from £200 to £1,250, the parcel 
of three lots on which the Park Theatre was afterward erected, with the 
building thereon, being sold for £ 1,000. "The most elegant building for 
that purpose in America," as a writer of 1798 described the new place of 
amusement for New Yorkers, cost $179,000, and was sold at auction soon 
after to Messrs. Astor and Beekman for $50,000. After its second destruc- 
tion by fire in 1849 no attempt to re-establish a theatre "so far downtown" 
was made, but on the site Mr. Astor erected five browustone stores. Some 
of these stood until late in the last century. 

Park Row, between Beekman and Spruce streets, was originally part 
of the city commons, lying open in the same manner as the present 
park did in the beginning of the last century. Beekman street and other 
streets contiguous to it were opened in 1749, the former being laid out 
and paved the following year. The increasing population moved in their 
direction rather than westwardly, and aroused the ministers and elders of 
the English Presbyterian Church to petition the city corporation for addi- 
tional church accommodations, as the membership had increased and the 
cemetery attached to the Wall street church had become too small. They 

i66 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 167 

particularly favored the triangular plot of ground between Beekman and 
Spruce streets. The corporation was favorable to the application, but pre- 
ferred to give the Church ground belonging to the city in a locality east of 
Chatham street, between the present Chambers and Pearl streets. The 
Church authorities objected to the location proffered, on the ground "that 
access to the lots was inconvenient, as the street leading to them (probably 
Duane) was so narrow that two or three carriages would fill up the passage, 
and it was not likely that that part of the city would be paved for many 
years; that the Dutch Church [which had obtained the grant in fee of 
twenty-eight lots, ten of which fronted northeasterly to Queen (Pearl) 
street, eight southeasterly in Thomas (now Rose) street, and ten westerly 
in George (William) street, at a rent of £70 per annum] and the Presby- 
terian Church, if erected at such little distance apart, would interrupt 
each other in service, and that a church in that locality would 
not be an ornament to the city, hidden, as it would be, by sur- 
rounding buildings." Their arguments in favor of the location they sought 
were that it was near the populous part of the city, that in its existing con- 
dition the locality w-as a nuisance, and that it would never be suitable for 
building purposes, the form being a triangle. They finally offered £ 40 a 
year for the ground, and after some deliberation the city authorities made 
them the grant forever at the sum offered. The property embraced about 
eight or nine city lots. In 1767 they built their church and opened it for 
service the following year. It remained one of the most popular churches 
in the city until 1856, when it was closed to religious service and soon after 
demolished, the property having been sold for the erection of business build- 
ings. Office buildings now occupy the site. 

The second section, east side of Chatham street, from Spruce to William, 
was a part of the plantation originally granted to Govert Loockermans, a 
merchant of New Amsterdam, in 164 2. Loockermans was the father-in-law 
of Jacob Leisler, who, after the death of the former, purchased the property 
from his heirs. The southerly line ran about sixty feet north of Spruce 
street, and the northerly line began about the present junction of William 
street. Near the southerly line of this property, it may be remarked, not 
far from the present Park Row and Spruce street, Leisler and his son-in-law, 
Milborne, after their execution, were first buried, the gallows being nearly 
opposite the place of burial. After the restoration to the heirs of Leisler's 
estate, by act of Parliament, it was divided into lots and sold, two of them, 
in 1749, on the northeast corner of what is now Nassau and Frankfort 
streets, bringing £ 300, and four, extending through from Nassau to William 
street, 59 by 100 feet, bringing £400 in 1762. 

In 1701 the streets in this vicinity were first regulated. The grade of 
Frankfort street was fixed and the inhabitants were ordered to pave it. In 
1811 a great fire destroyed all the buildings in this neighborhood. It 
broke out on the northwest corner of Chatham and Duane streets, and swept 
the buildings on both sides of Chatham street to the number of one hundred. 
Immediately after this fire Tammany Hall erected a building (still standing, 
at Frankfort and Nassau streets) as the headquarters of the Democratic 
party, which had formerly been on the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets. 

In early times "the park along Chatham street" was known as the place 



i68 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

of execution, the common gallows being the only structure within its limits. 

The third section, the vicinity of Chatham street south of Pearl, was 
once called Catimuts Hill, then Windmill Hill, then Fresh Water Hill. The 
first name was of Indian derivation; the second explains itself, the mill 
having been erected in 1662 by Jan de Witt, who sold it two years later. 
The deed of sale, which still exists, says that the mill was "under mortgage 
to the West India Company, under condition, when required to do so, to 
grind weekly for them, when there was wind, twenty-five schepels of grain." 
It was in existence for nearly a century, and may be found on the city map 
of 1729. On the summit of the hill was a public house, with a pleasure 
garden, known up to the period of the Revolution as Catimuts Garden. 

The road on the present line of Park Row was in existence from the 
earliest times, but was so steep for laden vehicles as to render a circuitous 
route around the eastward boundaries necessary. In 1734 an attempt was 
made to cut the hill down, but it was abandoned until 1740, when "several 
gentlemen, at their own expense, undertook to finish the street already be- 
gun through the hill by the windmill." They succeeded only in making 
a road of easy grade around the base of the hill. In 175 6 the gallows was 
removed to the foot of the hill, at what is now City Hall Place, midway 
between Pearl and Duane streets. Here some of the negroes supposed to 
have been in the plot of 1741 were burned. 

The west side of Chatham street, from William to Pearl, and extending 
east to Rose street, was originally a part of the city common lands, 
and lay waste, used only by lime and charcoal burners, until 176 2, when 
it was surveyed and the lots leased for twenty-one years. Soon after small 
houses were put up in the vicinity. About the beginning of the last century 
that portion of the street between Tryon Row and Duane street was fully 
built up, one of the leading business houses being that of Peter and George 
Lorillard, tobacconists. Between Duane and Pearl streets were also several 
business places, dwelling houses and a large pottery belonging to one 
George Crolius. On the opposite, or east, side of the street the whole extent 
to Pearl street was occupied by brick and frame houses, in which were 
stores and mechanics' shops. On the corner of Pearl street stood the Boston 
Stagehouse and Livery Stables, a place of public interest, owned by Benja- 
min Powell, and afterward by James Tyler, and one block west of Park 
Row were several large tanneries. 

At Pearl and Roosevelt streets was a stream called the Fresh Water 
Killetje, or little creek, which crossed the highway, and was itself crossed 
by a bridge on the line of the road. It formed for many years the limits 
separating the line of city and country in the municipal regvilations of 
early times. It was originally the only outlet of the large pond which lay 
west of Chatham street, and appears to have been a considerable stream. 
In ancient deeds this stream is referred to as the "ould kill." The bridge 
was erected in 1699, as the stream at times was not fordable, and was 
known in Colonial times as the Kissing Bridge. This appellation may be 
found in public records now extant, and springs from an ancient custom. 
The Tea Water Spring was on the west side of the road near the Kissing 
Bridge. 

It is said there probably was no spot having more agreeable associa- 



CRADLE DAYS OF XEJV YORK. 169 

tions in connection with early habits and customs in the city than this 
locality. It was romantically situated in the city suburbs, sur- 
rounded by woods and hills and near the borders of a beautiful lake, whose 
refreshing water and agreeable vicinage were sought by the people of the 
city. In course of time, however, these beauties passed away before the 
march of improvement; the hills were graded, the fresh water stream dried 
up, and the famous bridge gave place to pavements. The Tea Water well, 
however, which had been sunk later, was a necessity, and called for the 
making of several city ordinances regulating the passage and standing of 
the carts engaged in carrying it to the people. In the last half of 1800 the 
old well broke bounds, and it is said its water was used for a time by the 
occupant of a liquor store in the neighborhood. 

A map of 1757 shows that streets around this neighborhood were laid 
out and regulated before similar movements were begun near what was a 
part of the city, Beekman street. 

In the middle of 1798 war murmurs were heard. The American envoys 
in France, who had been sent thither in 1795 to adjust the complications 
which had arisen upon the ratification of the Jay treaty, and to ask amends 
for the seizure of American vessels by the French, announced the failure of 
their mission. They had been informed that negotiations would remain in 
abeyance until money was paid into the French Treasury, and that the 
penalty of refusal would be war. Congress at once adopted vigorous meas- 
ures for the raising of an army, and Governor Jay convened a special ses- 
sion of the New York Legislature to take measures for fortifying the harbor 
of the city. The sum of $1,200,000 was appropriated for the purpose. On 
June 13 the Chamber of Commerce and citizens petitioned the corporation 
to fortify the city, and $50,000 was appropriated and expended for that 
purpose. In this year auction duties were granted to the city by the State 
to support foreign poor, and the first Street Commissioner was appointed. 

In 1799 Richard»Harrison became Recorder, at a salary of $500 a year, 
and on March 15 the old Exchange, in Broad street, was ordered to be taken 
down. On July 20 "a great riot occurred at the corner of Greenwich and 
Murray streets and the military were called out," and nine days later the 
yellow fever again paralyzed the city. On December 16 "a day of thanks- 
giving was appointed (the last Wednesday in December), the first observed 
in this city by recommendation of the city authorities since the Revolution." 

Gloom pervaded the city on December 20, when the news arrived 
of the death of General Washington, which had occurred on the 14th of 
the month. Public testimonials of grief and reverence were displayed on 
every hand, and the corporation ordered "the bells of the various churches 
to be muffled and tolled every day from 12 to 1 o'clock until the 24th, and 
that the citizens wear crape for six weeks." The vestry of Trinity Church 
assembled at the house of Bishop Provost to give expression of sorrow, and 
"Ordered, That in consideration of the death of the late Lieutenant George 
Washington, the several churches belonging to this corporation be put in 
mourning." 



c, • 






\i 


. j^^^%^ 


:^' 




%k 


: : 



ilRST CITY HALL (DUTCH), OR STADT IIUYS. 
BUILT 1642, DEMOLISHED 1699. ALSO 
A WAREHOUSE AND TAVERN AT 
71 PEARL STREET. 




THIRD AND PRESENT CITY HALL, IN "tHE FIELDS, NOW CITY HALL PARK; BEGUN IN 1803; 

FINISHED ]S13. 




SECOND CITY HALL (ENGLISH), BUILT 1699-1700; 
DEMOLISHED 1834; SEAT OF COLONIAL, FED- 
ERAL AND CITY GOVERNMENTS, AT WALL 
AND NASSAU STREETS. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



(1800.) 

History of City Hall Park — A Few of the Occurrences There — First Public 

Building" Erected Within Its Limits — Building of 

the Present City Hall. 

Freedom's Acres would be a more appropriate name than City Hall 
Park for the piece of ground fronting Printing House Square, as in the old 
days every foot of it breathed the spirit of patriotism, and to it, in the new- 
era, the citizen possessed of civic pride repairs when that patriotism is 
threatened. The history of these few acres, which at one time included the 
land on which the present Postoffice stands, is full of local interest to the 
New Yorker. Originally a portion of the common lands granted to the city 
by its charter, its character for many years was that of an open pasture or 
cattle walk. In the time of the Dutch it was known as the Vlacte, or Flat, 
and at a later period as the Commons. Still later it was called the Fields, 
and after its inclosure the Park. From an entry in the city records in 1699 
one would conclude that a fortification had been erected near its south 
boundaries, and that at its northern limit was a "burial place for ne- 
groes, slave and free." The negroes were, both in the Dutch and English 
times, a proscribed race. Many of them were native Africans, who had been 
brought over in slave ships, and who retained their native superstitions 
and burial customs, among them one of burying their dead by night, with 
various incantations. The locality appropriated by them for burial pur- 
poses was, in the early settlement of the town, a desolate spot, descending, 
according to a map of the period, toward a ravine which led to the Kalk- 
hook pond, and, though within convenient distance of the city, still far 
enough away from it to impress on them the fact that they had nothing in 
common with the whites. No consideration was given by the authorities to 
the use to which this place was devoted, and not even a dedication of their 
burial place was made by the church authorities. Indeed, in 1673 the 
Dutch Governor, Colve, granted the land to a private citizen, not dis- 
tinguishing it from vacant lands. The new owner, however, allowed its 
continued use as a burial ground for many years. It ran about four hun- 
dred feet along the east side of Broadway, near Chambers street, and was 
about six hundred feet deep. 

In the early history of the city the celebrations of the burghers were 
held "on the plain before the fort," but with the inclosure of the Bowling 
Green a new location was selected, and the Commons became the rallying 
ground for the people on such anniversary days as the birthday of the King, 
Coronation Day, Gunpowder Plot Day, and at other times when the spirit 

171 



172 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

moved them to celebrate. Some years prior to the Revolution the name "the 
Fields" was substituted for its original name, without intent, apparently, 
and is famous in the song and story of the city. From the public character 
of the Fields as the place of open air meetings and of celebrations sprang 
public houses, ball alleys and other resorts for entertainment, so that the 
locality was of considerable note in the eighteenth century. With 
the birth of patriotism came its important period, and during the few 
years preceding the beginning of the Revolution public meetings of a po- 
litical character were held there, the results of which thundered around the 
world. Here are a few of the things which occurred on or near the spot 
which hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers cross every day: 

"1764 — Seizure of a press gang's boat by a mob, which carried it to the 
Common and burned it. 

"November 1, 1765 — First popular meeting on the Commons in oppo- 
sition to the Stamp Act; a gallows was erected, and the Lieutenant Governor 
burned in effigy. 

"November 2, 1765 — Another popular meeting on the Commons, held 
with a view to seize the stamps; action deferred. 

"1765-'66 — Other meetings of similar character until repeal of Stamp 
Act, in March, 1766. 

"June 4, 1766 — Meeting on the Commons to celebrate the repeal of the 
Stamp Act. A flag staff erected on the occasion inscribed 'King, Pitt and 
Liberty.' An ox roasted, and twenty-five barrels of ale, with a hogshead of 
rum punch, consumed on the occasion. 

"August 10, 1766 — A party of soldiers from the barracks along Cham- 
bers street cut down the pole erected in June. 

"August 11, 1766 — Meeting held on the Commons to raise another 
pole. The people were attacked by the soldiers, and several were wounded. 
A few days after, however, another pole was raised. 

"September 23, 1766 — The second pole was cut down by persons un- 
known. Within two days a third pole was erected. 

"March 18, 1767 — The third pole was destroyed. 

"March 19, 1767 — A fourth pole erected and secured by braces and iron 
bands, and a watch set to guard it. 

"March 21, 1767 — An attempt renewed by the soldiers to destroy the 
pole, but they were repulsed by the citizens. 

"December 17, 1767 — Meeting held in opposition to the Mutiny Act. 

"January 13, 1770 — The liberty pole again assailed by the soldiers, 
who were repulsed. 

"January 16, 1770 — Another attempt made on the pole, which was 
successful. It was sawed up and piled in front of Montagnie's door (the 
headquarters of the Sons of Liberty), in Broadway. 

"January 17, 1770 — Meeting of upward of three thousand citizens on 
the Commons. Another liberty pole soon after erected, strongly ironed, and 
surmounted with a topmast and vane, on the latter of which the word 
'Liberty' in large letters was conspicuous. 

"March 26, 1770 — A party of soldiers attempted to unship the top- 
mast; a contest ensued between them and the citizens, without fatal results. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. i73 

"May 10, 1770 — Meeting in opposition to the importation of British 

goods. e T T, 

"June. 1770 — A quantity of British goods seized by the Sons of Lib- 
erty and burned on the Commons. 

"July 6, 1774 — Great meeting in opposition to the act of Parliament 
called the Boston Port act. At this meeting Alexander Hamilton, then sev- 
enteen years old, first appeared as a public speaker. 

"1775 Various meetings on the all absorbing public affairs. The 

affair at Concord and the Battle of Lexington occurred, and the people 
began vigorously to prepare for momentous events. 

"July 9, 1776 The Declaration of Independence published to the 

troops paraded on the Commons at 6 o'clock in the evening. A hollow 
square was formed at the lower end of the Commons, in which was General 
Washington on horseback. The Declaration was read by one of his aids. 
At its conclusion three hearty cheers were given. 

-1776 Cunningham, the British Provost Marshal, had the liberty pole 

cut down." 

After the Revolution, when the city had recovered itself, the locality 
of the Fields began to show progress. Broadway was assuming the char- 
acter of a fashionable place of residence, and it was meet that the roving 
spirit of the cattle of the citizens should be curbed, especially when it took 
them in the neighborhood of the Fields. Many protests were raised against 
what was considered spoliation of the green when improvements, which in- 
cluded the fencing of it, were spoken of. The cattle should be allowed to rove 
at large upon it, the people thought. The improvements were made, how- 
ever and a post and rail fence was put around the sacred ground in 1785, 
transforming it into a park, which, it is hoped, it will always continue to be, 
and leaving its ancient titles in the minds of the lovers of the history of 
the city as synonymes for patriotism and liberty. It was not long, however, 
before the post and rail fence gave place to wooden palings, which remained 
for a score of years, and finally in 1816 these were succeeded by an iron 
railing, which was set with due ceremony and public commemoration of the 

event. , 

The first public buildings erected within the limits of the Park were 
a poorhouse, in 1736, on the site of the present City Hall, and in 
Colonial times a jail and a bridewell, with graveyards inclosed near 
by These three were the prominent buildings in the Park at the time of- 
the Revolution, though other structures stood in the vicinity of Chambers 
and Chatham streets, erected at different times as soldiers' barracks. They 
were rude affairs, one story high, and built of logs. A few, built in the time 
of the "old French war," remained in a ruinous condition for many years 
after the close of that war, and, it is said, were now and then tenanted by 
families of roving Indians, who hovered around the abodes of civilization, 
living by the sale of baskets and beadwork. The poorhouse of 1736 was 
found to be inadequate a half century later, and a new one was erected 
extending along the north side of the park and fronting on Chambers street. 
It soon became manifest to citizens that this almshouse was not appropri- 
ately located, and in 1810 a site of seven acres at Bellevue was purchased 
and the erection of a new structure was begun, which was ready for occu- 



174 CRADLE DAYS OP NEW YORK. 

pancy in 1812. The old building was transformed by the city authorities 
into the New York Institution, with the design of encouraging several enter- 
prises of a public character which had recently been started. Some of these 
so-called enterprises are at the present time the noblest institutions of the 
city. The New York Historical Society was located there; so also were the 
Academy of Arts and the Lyceum of Natural History. In 1818 the Deaf and 
Dumb Institute opened its school in the New York Institution with four 
pupils, and at various periods an Academy of Painting, the First Bank 
for Savings, the Lyceum, Scudder's American Museum, the American Insti- 
tute and other public institutions occupied parts of the building. 

In 1802 a new City Hall (the present one) was designed, to cost 
$25,000, and a premium was offered for the best plan, which was subse- 
quently awarded to Macomb & Mangin. "Much doubt was expressed as to 
the character of building which could be erected for so small a sum, and 
after hesitating for a time as to the expense the sum of $250,000 was finally 
voted, and contracts were entered into." The foundation-stone was laid on 
the site of the first poorhouse on September 20, 1803, by Mayor Edward Liv- 
ingston and by the Corporation, but it was July 4, 1810, before the latter 
first met in the building, in the Mayor's office, and not until 1812 was it 
fully completed. 

At various times .n the old days, as m tne new, the eye of the poli- 
tician has rested greedily on City Hall Park. In the early part of the 
eighteenth century a movement was set on foot to erect a City Hospital 
near the old bridewell, and land was voted by the corporation for the pur- 
pose, but the public voice was raised in protestation, and the scheme was 
abandoned. At another time it was proposed to erect a reservoir in it for 
supplying the city with water to be brought from The Bronx, but this 
project also fell through. A short time ago the latter-day politician at- 
tempted to confiscate for alleged public purposes this historic spot, but the 
ever watchful press silenced, it is hoped forever, any further attempts to 
despoil it. 

The twilight of the eighteenth century saw New York City plunged 
in mourning over the death of General Washington. On December 26 the 
Chamber of Commerce had taken steps to honor the dead patriot, and every 
other society and association in the city had joined with it. The last day 
of the year was fixed for the ceremonies, and in the forenoon a funeral 
procession wound along the streets on its way to St. Paul's Church, com- 
posed of civic and military dignitaries, with mounted troops and infantry 
and artillery, members of social, political and national associations, repre- 
sentatives of banks and other financial institutions, Regents of the Uni- 
versity, the trustees of Columbia College, members of the bar, ministers of 
religious denominations, the Lieutenant Governor of the State and the 
foreign consuls in the city. In the place of honor was Major General Ham- 
ilton, with his suite. Immediately preceding the funeral urn, which was 
carried upon a bier, in the form of a palanquin, supported by eight soldiers, 
were twenty-four girls in white dresses. A horse, caparisoned in mourning, 
v/as led behind the bier. The members of the Cincinnati followed as chief 
mourners, with the corporation of the city behind them. On arriving at the 
church Bishop Provost read the office for the dead, and Gouverneur Morris 



CRADLE DAYS OP X E\V YORK 



175 



delivered the eulogy. It was at the services held on February 22, 1800, In 
the Dutch Church in Nassau street, that Dr. William Linn, one of the 
pastors of the Collegiate Reformed Church, said: "That calumny which has 
sought to tarnish the fame of Washington will soon become dumb, and his 
name will be revered until the fashion of this world has wholly passed 
away." 



^ i'7^ - 







BOWLING ON BOWLING GKEii^^N. 
(Dutch Period.) 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



(1800,> 



Lower Broadway-Its Position as a Residential Neighborhood-Places of 
Historic Interest— Some of Its Residents— Oyster Pasty Alley- 
Bowling Green Inclosed— The City at the Century's Dawn. 

It requires considerable imagination on the part of the New Yorker of 
the twentieth century to remove the cloud capped buildings of lower Broad- 
way and substitute therefor the silent solitudes of tangled forests weedy 
creeks and sluggish ponds which were there in the seventeenth century Yet 
such was the place early in the Dutch occupation, except that here and 
there was a furrowed field or rolling pasture. With the arrival of Van 
Twiller m 1633 this portion of the island was divided into farms, carefully 
measured and numbered, to which the name known to every one was given 
-bouweries (land to be cultivated). There were six of these bouweries. 
The first included the ground on the west side of Broadway, between Wall 
and Chambers streets; the second, fourth and sixth included the ground on 
the east side of the same thoroughfare up to City Hall Park; the third and 
fifth comprised the territory north of Chambers street and west of Broad 
way up to the borders of what later became Greenwich Village South of 
all these tracts of land was the "Company's Garden," stretching from the 
fort to Wall street on the west of Broadway. It is of this section we will 
treat, but particularly of the part surrounding Bowling Green 

In the times of the Dutch the first section of this world known thor- 
oughfare was laid out as far north as Wall street. It was next extended to 
the park, and it may be said that it took nearly a century before it was built 
up to that point. About the time of the Revolution its development had 
reached Duane street, and toward the beginning of the nineteenth century 
It was opened as far as the Meadows, or Canal street. In the first quarter 
of the century it had crept to Astor Place, and then to the "Tulip Tree " 
above the present Union Square. With rapid strides it afterward advanced 
to its present extent. 

That section of Broadway which faces the Bowling Green from the west 
was a popular part of New Amsterdam. It was the court end of the town 
for here was the Parade in front, which also served as the market place' 
with the fort on one side, two leading popular taverns, a fashionable store' 
the residence of the provincial secretary and the home of the Dominie' 
Megapolensis, on the southerly corner of the present Morris street The 
buildings in the neighborhood were substantial two story affairs, with two 
to four chimneys in each. Some of them were built of brick and stood the 
ravages of nearly a century and a half of time. On the westerly side of 

176 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. ,7; 

Broadway, north of the Parade and near the present Morris street, were 
four small buildings, and adjoining them the first burial ground established 
in the city, which ran along Broadway for nearly two hundred feet. North 
of the burial ground were several residences, with large gardens and or- 
chards attached, which extended to the shore of the river. In one of these 
lived Burgomaster Vandiegrist, and after him other chief magistrates of the 
city, the last one Mayor Johnston, in 1715. Further north was the resi- 
dence of the Schout-Fiscal, Van Dyck, and adjacent to it an orchard and a 
garden in which vegetables were raised for the use of the public officials, 
and which afterward became a burial ground. Crossing this garden diagon- 
ally toward the river shore was the city wall, or palisades, erected in 1653. 

A different condition of affairs existed on the east side of Broadway 
during the Dutch times. Though it became thickly populated, the buildings 
were of an inferior character, some of them mere hovels, with not more than 
one room and a fireplace. The lots attached extended back nearly two hun- 
dred and fifty feet to the marsh along Broad street, but that portion front- 
ing on Broadway was used for gardening purposes. At this period it was 
known as the "Heere-straat." 

In 1664, when the English acquired the country, and when an attempt 
was made to obliterate everything with a Dutch derivative, the present 
name was adopted, and shortly afterward the middle of the street was 
paved with pebble stones, and the inhabitants were permitted to plant trees 
in front of their grounds. In 1707 the sidewalks were paved. 

Many places of historic interest clustered around the street facing 
the Bowling Green. No. 1 Broadway was the site of the tavern of Mrs. 
Kocks (originally erected by her husband, Peter Kocks, an officer in the 
Dutch service), and afterward of a building which in colonial times was the 
seat of the highest fashion in the colony. During the Revolution it was 
the headquarters of the British General, Clinton, and at various periods it 
was occupied by leading citizens. It afterward became the Kennedy House, 
taking its name from its owner, a former Collector of the Port. The "King's 
Arms," or, as it was known at one period of the colonial times, Burns's 
Coffee House, stood at what is now No. 11 Broadway, on the site of Burgo- 
master Crigier's tavern. It was quite a place of amusement in the old days, 
when musical entertainments were given in the large garden attached to it. 
During the British possession it was a sort of lodging house, and became 
afterward the Atlantic Garden, a name which it bore to 1861 or 1862, when 
it was torn down and the ground used by one of the city railroad com- 
panies. The parsonage of Dominie Megapolensis became the property i^nd 
residence of Balthazar Bayard, who erected a brewery on the premises, near 
the river shore, access to which was by a lane on the present line of Morris 
street. After his death the heirs sold the property to Augustus Jay. 

Among the noted people of New York who lived on Broadway opposite 
the Bowling Green in colonial times were members of the Livingston, Ver- 
planck and Van Cortlandt families, and up to nearly the middle of the last 
century its ante-colonial appearance was preserved, as it had escaped in the 
great fire of 1776, when other houses in the vicinity were burned. Before 
the beginning of the last century the following were residents of the block: 
No. 1, Mrs. Loring; No. 3, John Watts; No. 5, Chancellor Livingston; No. 7, 



178 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

John Stevens; No, 9, Elizabeth Van Cortlandt; No. 13, Mary Ellison. No. 11 
was the Atlantic Garden. 

Little is known of the appearance of Broadway above Morris street in 
the English colonial times, as every vestige of its former appearance was 
obliterated by the fire of 1776. It was a fashionable quarter of the town, 
however, and in it was the residence of Governor Clarke, on the west side 
of the street, south of Exchange Place, which in the English period was 
known as "Oyster Pasty Alley," and was a path leading to a small redoubt 
connected with the city fortifications. 

In 1785 the temporary structures erected in Broadway after the fire 
were still standing, and it was only a short time after this date that the 
street took on again its previous semblance of a select locality. In 1790 the 
frame buildings Nos. 37 to 73 were demolished and elegant private 
residences were built in their stead, which were owned and occupied by 
leading citizens, one of them as the Presidential mansion of General Wash- 
ington. In 1830 four of these residences were converted into a hotel known 
as Bunker's Mansion House, a hostelry of considerable importance, "possess- 
ing much of the retirement and quiet of an elegant private residence." 
Here are the names of a few prominent citizens who occupied these build- 
ings previous to 1855: No. 37, Brockholst Livingston; No. 43, Edward Liv- 
ingston; No. 47, Alexander McComb; No. 59, Jacob Morton; No. 61, Isaac 
Clason, and No. 67, John R. Livingston. 

The prejudices of the Dutch to the east side of Broadway below Wall 
street seem to have been handed down to their successors. For many years 
after the English came into possession of the city the principal building 
erected below Exchange Place was a tavern, and the prices paid between 
1725 and 1750 for property in the locality are further evidences of the infe- 
rior position it held in the investment field. In 1725 one house and lot, 31 
feet front and 60 feet deep, were sold for £100. In 1737 a house and lot 34 
feet by 75, on the southeast corner of Broadway and Exchange Place, 
brought £95. In 1750 a house and lot, 24 by 80 feet, were bought for £201. 
The houses, of course, were mostly frame structures, and the locality was not 
distinguished above the more retired parts of the city as a place either of 
business or residence. 

The improvements on the west side of Broadway below Wall street 
began about 1790, when first class buildings took the place of the temporary 
one and two story structures that had stood there. Toward the close of 
1800 the following were occupants of the new buildings: No. 16, George 
Scriber; No. 24, Nicholas Low; No. 23, Alexander Hamilton; No. 30, John 
Delafield; No. 34, Dr. Charlton; No. 36, Peter Jay Munro; No. 44, Robert 
Troup; No. 66, Herman Le Roy; No. 68, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and No. 70, 
Cadwallader Colden. Governor Jay in after years erected in this vicinity 
a large stone house, then considered a great ornament to the street. 

An authority says: "In respect to the general topography of Broadway 
below Wall street it was found that the original surface was followed in the 
first buildings on the street, and that there were no alterations of the grade 
until a period shortly subsequent to the Revolutionary War. The occasion 
of an alteration of the original grade arose apparently from the incon- 
venience of carrying off the surface water. In 1786 a surveyor appointed 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 179 

for the purpose reported a plan, by making the street descend from Wall 
street to Verlettenberg (now Exchange Place), at which latter point the 
street was to be lowered three feet; and so, also, below Verlettenberg, a sim- 
ilar descending grade was to be established 157 feet south, thus bringing 
the water from both directions to Verlettenberg hill, thence to flow down 
to Broad street. The residents objected to the adoption of this plan, and 
the permanent grade was established by lowering the hill near the Bowling 
Green to an extent which afforded a gradual descent." 

In 1732 Bowling Green was inclosed, "with walks therein, for the 
beauty and ornament of the city and the recreation and delight of the in- 
habitants thereof." 

In 1806 an order was made rempving the old wells and pumps, several 
of which stood in the middle of Broadway, and establishing others at the 
sidewalks. They had been in existence about one hundred and thirty years. 

Very little of note seems to have occurred in New York in the begin- 
ning of the year 1800. As now, she was the metropolis of the Western 
world, though only a village compared with her magnificent proportions of 
to-day. The city proper was bounded on Broadway by Anthony (Worth) 
street, on the North River by Harrison street, and on the East River by 
Rutgers street. Within these limits the houses were scattered and sur- 
rounded by large gardens and vacant lots. Bowery Lane's farmer population 
extended as far as Broome street, with fields and orchards reaching out on 
either side from river to river. From the Battery to Cedar street the river 
front street was Greenwich. At Cedar Washington street had begun, and 
was partly built on one side to Harrison street, where it terminated abruptly 
in the river. "Above Broadway," says the record, "was a hilly country, 
sloping on the east to the Fresh Water Pond, not yet quite filled in from 
the surrounding hills, and descending on the west to Lispenard Meadows, 
near Canal street." Of the leveling of the high hill at the junction of 
Broadway and Worth street mention was made in a previous chapter. Above 
the arched bridge in the valley at Canal street another high hill rose, fall- 
ing off abruptly to a pond in the space between Broome and Spring streets, 
through which Broadway was filled up and prolonged. At Astor Place, 
where Broadway ended, a fence across the road denoted the southern boun- 
dary of the Randall Farm, afterward the endowment of the Sailor's Snug 
Harbor. The Boston Post Road ran eastward from Madison Square along 
the Rose Hill Farm, which prior to the Revolution was the property of John 
Watts, and covered twenty-five blocks of ground in what was then the 
Eighteenth Ward. By a circuitous route it wound its way to Harlem. The 
Bloomingdale Road, which was a continuation of the Bowery Lane, formed 
a junction with two roads, the Fitzroy and Southampton, and extended to 
Kingsbridge by way of McGowan's Pass and Manhattanville, and then con- 
tinued to Albany. Love Lane, now Twenty-first street, ran westward to the 
North River from the Bloomingdale Road. 



CHAPTER XXXVn. 



(1800.) 

History of Wall Street — Speculative Instinct of Our Forefathers — Erection 

of First Presbyterian Church — Coffee House — The Bank 

of New York — Comparative Values. 

Few persons, if asked where The Cingel was in old New York, would 
answer Wall street. Yet that was the common Dutch name of the principal 
financial thoroughfare of the present day. It signified "ramparts" in the 
language of the first settlers. What an interesting and curious history 
surrounds this mart of finance of the Western continent, where Mammon 
reigns uncurbed! 

The purchasers of the island of Manhattan, according to a Dutch his- 
torian, were liberal in allotting to settlers suitable parcels of land for their 
habitations, gardens and farms, but below the present Wall street no con- 
siderable tract for farming purposes was granted. This part was appropri- 
ated to the city proper. When occasion offered for the establishing of some 
small business to enhance the comfort of the settlers, and the applicant for 
land could guarantee to improve it, a suitable plot was given to him within 
the so-called city limits, but he had to live up to his contract in order to 
hold it. For twenty-five years these building sites were confined to a few 
lanes or thoroughfares adjacent to the fort on the south point of the island 
and along the East River, in the same vicinity, the ungranted land lying 
in common, under the name of T'Schaape Waytie, or Sheep Pasture, with 
boundaries according to the present streets as follows: New street, on the 
west; Beaver street, from New to William, on the south; William, from 
Beaver to Wall, on the east, and Wall, from William to New, on the north. 
Its extent was about fifteen acres. This parcel of land was reserved for 
many years as pasturage, even after the growth of the settlement fore- 
shadowed its appropriation for improvement purposes. 

During the administration of Governor Stuyvesant the Sheep Pasture 
began to lose its identity as such. Along the line of the present Broad street 
tanneries were established, which took in the meadow land of swampy char- 
acter, and to persons of influence was granted the remaining ground. To 
Dominie Driscius was given the lion's share, apparently, for it was a great 
part of the northerly portion, extending along the line of Wall street and 
from the present line of New street to William street. It lay "south of the 
land of Jan Jansen Damen, which ran parallel with the present northerly 
line of Wall street, from Broadway to William street, and formed an oblong 
projection extending along the easterly bounds of the present William 
street, to near Beaver street, then eastward some distance along the latter, 

1 80 



I 



CRADLE DAYS OF XEJV YORK. i8i 

and then along the rear of the company's gardens, fronting on the present 
Pearl street as far as Maiden Lane." The original grantee of the land 
through which Wall street runs was Cornells Groesens, one of the early- 
settlers. These persons, therefore, were the original grantees of the greater 
part of the land in which is comprised the present financial district of the 
city. 

The entire year of 1G46 found Governor Kieft, the predecessor of Stuy- 
vesant, much harassed by what he styled the "impudent encroachments" of 
the New Englanders, and by difficulties with the Swedes on the Delaware 
River. The advent of Stuyvesant the following year did not seem to lessen 
these difficulties, but brought on others. The Indians exhibited signs of un- 
easiness, because their promised presents were in arrears, and they de- 
manded, too, firearms of the Dutch. As for the people of New England, they 
were growing stronger in numbers, and were disposed to take, without much 
regard for technical rights, what territory their progress required. On 
February 26, 1653, Stuyvesant learned that military preparations were 
going on in New England to force the city to yield in the so-called boundary 
dispute or to end it by an attack upon the capital of the Dutch province. He 
called a joint meeting of the Council and City Fathers, and they resolved to 
erect a line of defences along the suburbs, extending from the North to the 
East River. About forty of the principal men of New Amsterdam subscribed 
a loan of $2,000 to prepare the city for the siege. The fence which Kieft 
had built across the island for the protection of the cattle still remained, 
and it was decided to inclose the city by a ditch and palisades, with a breast- 
work, on about the same line. Proposals for the construction of the work 
were issued in March, 1653, and by May 1 the defence wall was completed, 
with a ditch two feet wide and three feet deep dug on the inside, and the 
dirt thrown up against the fence to make a platform sufficiently high to 
permit the assailed to overlook the stockade. The whole length of the work 
from river to river was 2,340 feet. During the whole summer the citizens 
remained under arms, expecting an attack, but, while war upon the Dutch 
colonists was actually in contemplation in New England, the General Court 
of Massachusetts refused to sanction any invasion of the Dutch territory. 

In 1656 it was resolved "to erect a large and suitable gate at the wall 
near the East River, according to the plan of Captain Coninck," an officer in 
the service of the company than stationed in New Amsterdam. This struc- 
ture crossed the present Pearl street at its junction with Wall street, and 
was known in its time as "T'Water Poort," or the Water Gate, to distinguish 
it from the one situated in Broadway and known as the "Land Gate." At 
the same time the East River shore in the vicinity was first improved by 
the construction along its natural shore at high water mark of a wharf 
elongated about fifty feet, so that ships, which usually sent their cargoes on 
shore in scows, could deliver at the wharf. The wall was, nevertheless, kept 
in tolerable repair for some years, and when the Dutch Captain Colve recap- 
tured the city from the English in 1673 it was added to and strengthened 
materially. Soon after its completion buildings were erected along the 
southern line of the street, but they were humble affairs, and mostly tap- 
rooms or beershops. 

The speculative instinct seems to have entered materially into the 



i82 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

erection of this wall across the island, or perhaps was a consequence of it, for 
investigation reveals that the first considerable plot of land divided into 
parcels and offered at public sale in this city was the Jan Jansen Damen 
farm, before spoken of, which fronted 300 feet on Wall street, from William 
to Pearl, ran 260 feet along the present William street, 3 20 feet easterly, 
nearly along the present Beaver street, and thence to Wall street, one hun- 
dred feet of it covering the site of the old Custom House. Damen at the time 
this plot was sold in 1656 to Jacob Flodder, of Fort Orange (Albany), was 
dead. The purchaser divided it into parcels with a frontage of thirty feet, 
and extending generally to the depth of the plot, and sold them, one of the 
buyers being Jacob Jansen Moesman, a merchant trader, who on his lot, 
30 feet front and 200 feet deep (a portion of it being the site of the old 
Custom House), erected a building which was considered the best in the 
street. Soon after this sale improvements in the vicinity were begun, and 
among these so-called improvements in 1664 were the following: A shanty 
belonging to Dirck, the wool-spinner; a shanty belonging to Grietze, the 
chimney sweep; a taproom belonging to Jan Tunison; a general store belong- 
ing to Jacob Jansen Moesman and a small building belonging to Dirck Van 
Clyff. 

Another interesting example of the speculative instinct of our fore- 
fathers may be mentioned. When the wall was built it was thought neces- 
sary to have a space of about one hundred feet between it and the line of 
buildings within and parallel to it, for the evolutions of troops and other 
purposes not mentioned in the old documents. This space during the time 
of Governor Dongan, when it was contemplated that the wall would have 
to be demolished, was found to be of insufficient width for a street, and it 
seems he appropriated about forty feet within the ramparts for his own use, 
Captain Knight, one of his subordinates, purchasing from the Damen heirs 
nearly one thousand feet frontage, with a depth of 128 feet. This land soon 
after 1685 became the property of the Governor, and was sold by him in 
1689 to Abraham De Peyster and Nicholas Bayard. Preliminary to this sale, 
the survey of the line proposed to be established on the north side of Wall 
street, leaving the street thirty-six feet wide, was ordered in 1685. 

In 1688 Dongan determined to enlarge the city, and ordered an exami- 
nation of the wall for the purpose of placing it further out. It was reported 
to him that "the Water Gate was completely decayed and had fallen down; 
that the Artillery Mount (on what is now the northwest corner of Wall 
and William streets) was in a state of decay; that the curtain palisades be- 
tween the Artillery and the Land Gate Mount (between the present William 
street and Broadway) were in ruins, and the gate across Broadway was 
ready to fall down." It was not until 1699, however, after a petition of the 
Common Council was presented to the provincial authorities stating "that 
the former line of fortifications in Wall street, from the North River to the 
East River, had fallen to decay, and the encroachments of buildings which 
have been made adjacent thereto will render the same useless for the fu- 
ture," that action was taken for its demolition. Another reason given to 
his excellency why their petition should be granted was that "they proposed 
with all speed to build a new City Hall at the end of one of the principal 
streets fronting to the aforesaid line of fortifications;" and the stones of the 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 183 

bastions (one on the corner of the present William street and the other in 
Broadway) added to the fortifications in 1692, on the occasion of the French 
War, were asked for, to use in building the said City Hall. 

It was the erection of the City Hall, opposite Broad street, in 1700, 
during the Governorship of the Earl of Bellamont, and its use afterward, in 
178!), as the Capitol of the United States, which settled the character of the 
street as the centre of interest of the city. A description of the building as 
the Capitol has been given in a previous chapter. 

In 1816 the site of the old City Hall was divided into lots, and brought, 
on an average $8,000 a lot. Plain brick buildings were erected on the site, 
one of which, on the corner of Nassau street, was occupied for some years 
as a book store and reading room, and afterward was used as the Custom 
House. The old Treasury building, originally erected for a Custom House, 
at one time occupied the site. 

The first sale by De Peyster and Bayard of any part of their property 
was in 1701, when a lot on the northwest corner of Wall street and 
the present William street was conveyed to Gabriel Thompson, innkeeper, 
for £120. In 1718 they sold to trustees of the Presbyterian Church "all that 
piece of land to the westward of the City Hall, on the north side of Wall 
street, 88 feet in breadth by 124 feet in depth," for £350. On this ground, in 
1719, the First Presbyterian Church was erected, a history of which was 
given in the chapters on the beginning of the churches of the old 
city. It was enlarged in 1748, and in 1810 was entirely rebuilt. In 1844 it 
was sold to a Presbyterian congregation in Jersey City, and was taken 
down, the material of which it was composed being used in the erection 
of substantially the same building on the corner of Washington and Sussex 
streets, in that city. 

The site of the ancient half-moon fortification and blockhouse of the 
Dutch times, at the foot of Wall street, served as the first established slave 
market in 1709. While in after years it was used as a meal market, and 
was commonly known as such, it continued to be known particularly as the 
place "where slaves stood for hire." Twelve years after the middle of the 
eighteenth century "the agreeable prospect of the East River, which those 
that live in Wall street would otherwise enjoy," was greatly obstructed by 
the slave mart, which occasioned a dirty street, "offensive to the inhabitants 
and disagreeable to those that pass to and from the Coffee House," and its 
removal was asked for and granted. 

Another disagreeable feature of the street, according to the records, 
was a sugar house which occupied the whole front on the north side of 
Wall street, between the present Nassau and William streets. It had been 
erected by Samuel Bayard in the early part of the seventeenth century, and 
was used until after his death, in 1745. It was an unsightly structure, 
standing back from the street, in the centre of the block, inclosed by a high 
fence. Its existence marred the neighborhood and precluded the possibility 
of improving its architecture. Protests were made against it, and the 
authorities ordered its demolition. Fine dwelling houses were erected on 
its site at about the time of the War of the Revolution, and the street be- 
came famous for its elegant and fashionable homes. 

A noted building which adjoined the old City Hall was the Verplanck 



i84 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Mansion, which, after its use as a dwelling house, became the home of dif- 
ferent financial institutions. It stood on one of three lots which were sold 
by the trustees of the De Peyster estate to Samuel Verplanck for £260 in 
1773. It was earlier than this, however, when the erection of fine dwellings 
took place on the north side of the street, between William and Pearl 
streets. 

The centre of mercantile affairs in the city prior to the Revolution 
was the lower part of Wall street, which had been built up with stores as 
far as Front street. In this section was the Coffee House, or Merchants' 
Exchange, which in colonial times seethed with politics. In it the most 
important commercial and public affairs had their origin. It stood on the 
southeast corner of Wall and Water streets, and after the birth of the new 
Tontine Coffee House was known as the Old Coffee House. The new one 
was located on the northwest corner of Wall and Water streets, and cost 
$43,000. At the junction of Wall and William streets stood the Pitt statue, 
which was unveiled on September 7, 1770, "as a public testimony of the 
grateful sense the colony of New York retains of the many eminent services 
he rendered America, particularly in promoting the repeal of the Stamp 
Act." The statue was of fine marble. The figure was in a Roman habit, the 
right hand holding a scroll, with the world "Articuli Magnae Chartae 
Libertatum," the left being extended, in the attitude assumed in de- 
livering an oration. The statue passed through various vicissitudes after it 
was torn down by a frenzied mob, and what is left of it is in the keeping 
of the New York Historical Society, which rescued it from a junk heap in 
the corporation yard. 

With the end of the Revolutionary War the financial history of Wall 
street may be said to have begun, and with it the change in its architectural 
as well as business character. The Bank of New York was the first institu- 
tion established. It began operations in 1791, on the corner of William 
street. Eight years later the Manhattan Company was incorporated, and 
took up its quarters at No. 23 Wall street. The Merchants' Bank, incor- 
porated in 1805, followed, at No. 25; the United States Bank, in 1805, at 
No. 38, and the Mechanics' Bank, in 1810, at No. 16 Wall street. These 
were the pioneer banking institutions of the city. In 1815 there were thir- 
teen insurance companies established in the street, but it may be said that 
companies of this character antedated the banks in the city. The street at 
the beginning of the last century was in a heterogeneous business state, as 
banks, private residences, boarding houses, porter houses, grocers, schools, 
merchants, newspaper offices, auctioneers and insurance offices were a part 
of its life. Between 1700 and 1800 lots were sold in different parts of it 
for from £110 to £2,510. In 1909 the prices range from $40 a square foot 
to $400. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



(1800.) 

History of the "Heere Wegh" (Wall Street to City Hall Park)— The Damen 

Plantation — The Van Tienhoven Plantation — The Shoemakers' 

Pasture — The King's Arms Tavern. 

As the history of the old city below Wall street and of the outlying 
part to the east of Broadway has been told, we will follow the line of the 
"Heere Wegh," as it was called in Dutch times, or highway beyond the 
city wall. This name distinguished it from the "Heere straat," which 
was within the town limits. The "Heere Wegh" followed the present line 
of Broadway as far as the Commons, or present park, passing a portion of 
the West India Company's garden, the Damen and Van Tienhoven planta- 
tions, a part of the West India Company's farm and a section of the Com- 
mons, and then diverged on the line of Chatham street. The Company's Gar- 
den occupied the site of the present Trinity Churchyard, but on the abandon- 
ment of the old churchyard in the latter part of the seventeenth century a 
portion of the garden lying north of the city gates was devoted to burial pur- 
poses. In the old days it was proposed to erect a parsonage on the site of the 
present Trinity, and build the church within the walls of the bastion, on the 
northwest corner of Wall and William streets, but some farsighted citizen, 
according to the record, protested on the ground that the location selected 
was low, and that the church should stand on high ground, so Broadway 
was selected for its site. 

The Damen plantation extended on the west side of Broadway from 
opposite Pine street to Pulton street, and on the east side from the present 
Maiden Lane south to the line of Pine street. It was patented to its owner, 
John Damen, in 1644, and after his death, in 1651, reverted to his widow. 
In 1660 a partition of the estate was made among Mrs. Damen's heirs, who 
sold their portions. Two of the largest parcels of this land were conveyed 
early in the eighteenth century to O. S. Van Cortlandt and Tunis Dey. The 
Van Cortlandt parcel was later apportioned to two daughters of the burgo- 
master. In 1733 the heirs of these parties, Philip and Frederic Van Cort- 
landt, partitioned the property and laid out Cortlandt street to the river, 
which was accepted as a public thoroughfare the same year. The first sale 
of a lot here took place in 1737. It was on the north side of the street, 25 
by 126 feet, and extended to the land of Tunis Dey. The price paid was £26. 

The Dey parcel was five acres in extent. Its owner was a gardener and 
miller, his windmill being situated near the river shore. It was not until 
1730 that partition was made of this estate, though the old miller had made 
his will in 1688, leaving half of his property to his wife and half to his 

185 



i86 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

children. It was brought into the market as building lots in 1743, and 
two years later the first record of sale of one of them occurs, on the south- 
west corner of Broadway and Dey street, for which i75 was paid. A 
quarter of a century later, and ten years before Broadway had been regu- 
lated from Dey street to Fulton street, a lot on Broadway near Dey street 
brought £380. The first suburban tavern of fashionable resort was estab- 
lished in 1670 on the east side of Broadway near the present Liberty 
street, and was known as the Blue Boar. 

The Van Tienhoven plantation before-mentioned extended along the 
east side of Broadway, from the Maagde Paatje (Maiden Lane) to a point 
about 117 feet north of Fulton street. In 1676, during the Governorship of 
Edmund Andros, all owners of vacant lots or ruinous buildings were di- 
rected to "at once build upon or improve them under penalty of seeing 
them sold at public auction." This order opened the way for the sale of the 
Van Tienhoven land, and likewise provided a location for the tan-pits, 
which had been considered a nuisance, and were ordered removed from 
Broad street to beyond the limits of the town. The land was purchased 
by a company of five shoemakers, who were also tanners, who established 
themselves along Maiden Lane, which was then a marshy valley. Their 
property embraced about sixteen acres, their tannery being located near the 
junction of Maiden Lane and William street. This section of the old city 
was commonly known as the Shoemakers' Pasture. In 1696, when Maiden 
Lane was regulated and the land surveyed and divided into town lots, it 
still retained its original title. In 1715 the tannery owners, "finding the 
said land to be suitable for building of houses for an enlargement of the city, 
projected and laid out said lands into one hundred and sixty-four lots," and 
moved their business to the "Swamp," in the vicinity of what is now Ferry 
street. 

A part of the history of the division of their property by the members 
of the Shoemakers' Association is worthy of record. John Harberding, a 
venerable craftsman, and one of the original members of the association, 
emigrated to the colony about 1660, while it was under Dutch rule. He 
was a wild youth, it was said, but in his mature years became a pillar of 
the church. He plied his trade as a shoemaker on Broadway, near Maiden 
Lane, for many years, and so wedded had he become to the locality that 
when the division of the property occurred he petitioned to be allowed to 
remain in the neighborhood. His fellow members granted his request, and 
allotted to him 580 feet of ground along Broadway by 160 feet in depth. 
At his death in 1723, it is said, he left a portion of a large fortune, which 
included a part of this land, to the Dutch Reformed Church. The streets 
as laid out originally through this property still exist — .Tohn street (after 
the owner) and Fulton street (formerly Fair street) — though they were 
widened in the early part of the last century. The homestead of John 
Harberding, on the corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane, was sold after his 
death for £120. 

The northerly part of the Shoemakers' Pasture lay above the present 
Fulton street, 117 feet on Broadway, and taking in the block now bounded 
by Broadway, Fulton, Nassau and Ann streets. For many years it was a 
famous public resort, known as Spring Garden, the public house on the 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 187 

premises standing on the corner of Ann street. "Breakfast from 7 to 9; 
tea in the afternoon from 3 to 6; the best of green tea and hot French rolls, 
pies and tarts drawn, from 7 to 9; mead and cakes," were served by John 
Elkin, its proprietor, says a newspaper of 1761. A short time before the 
Revolution the "Sons of Liberty" acquired this property for their headquar- 
ters, and changed its name to Hampden Hall. Many of the riots and public 
disputes of the Revolutionary period occurred within the walls of Hampden 
Hall, but after the close of the hostilities it was occupied as a private house 
until its conversion in 1830 into Scudder's Museum. In 1840 P. T. Barnum 
acquired it for museum purposes. It is now occupied by the St. Paul 
Building. 

Trinity Church farm, which was apportioned into lots about 1760, 
lay on the west side of Broadway, north of Fulton street. The front of it 
extended between Partition street (Fulton) and Vesey street. This part 
was given over to the erection of a church, which was completed in 1765 
and called St. Paul's. It links to-day the past with the present. 

One can hardly think, looking at that portion of Broadway around 
Liberty street, that for thirty-three years from 1738 there stood in the 
middle of Broadway, opposite the street mentioned, which was then called 
Crown street, a building 156 feet long and 23 i/^ feet wide, used as a market. 
"It was an eyesore to the neighborhood and prejudicial to the elegance of 
the street," says the record. With taverns, 'lodging houses and small stores 
clustered around it, and market and country wagons backed up at its 
entrances, it was a busy mart of the old city, but withal a nuisance, as on 
either side of it a space barely twenty feet wide existed for other commer- 
cial purposes. Frequent appeals were made to legislative authority for its 
removal, without apparent effect until 1771, when its indictment as a 
public nuisance was obtained, causing its obliteration. A new one to take 
its place was erected on the southeast corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane," 
with its front on the latter thoroughfare. Though its new position removed 
it from the centre of the business life which had grown around it, it estab- 
lished for itself a new field. In 1776, when the great fire occurred, all the 
taverns, lodging houses, small stores and dwellings on the west side of the 
street were swept away, among them the King's Arms Tavern, a popular 
resort for country people and of notable local reputation, which stood oppo- 
site the new market. It was constructed of gray stone, with narrow arched 
windows in front, and from its rear piazza a view of the river was afforded. 
In it General Gage had headquarters, and from its garden, which extended 
to the river, it is said the chivalric Champe proposed to abduct Benedict 
Arnold, who resided in the house after the discovery of his treason, and 
carry him off to the American lines in the Jerseys. 

' Broadway, from Rector street to the park, was ordered surveyed in 
1790 for the purpose of repaving it. The work was begun in the middle 
of the year, and when finished the street had brick sidewalks, "which 
enhanced its value as a thoroughfare" and led to the establishment on it 
four years after of the first building in the city with a slate roof. It 
was known as the City Hotel, and its erection was considered quite en- 
terprising in the old days, as it occupied the entire block between Thames 
and Cedar streets, "and was the loftiest edifice of the kind in the city." 



i88 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

It was the scene of public balls, dinners, concerts and festivities; in fact, 
the fashionable resort of the town. It stood long into the first half of the 
last century, with the result which usually follows progress. A stage estab- 
lishment, standing on the block between Cedar and Liberty streets, fol- 
lowed the erection of the City Hotel, and on the next block, extending to 
Cortlandt street, fine buildings and stores were erected, among them those 
of John Jacob Astor, fur merchant; James H. Kipp, merchant; Jacobus 
Bogart, baker, and John B. Dash, Jr., iron merchant. 

These buildings were not superior to those standing between Cort- 
landt and Fulton streets, it is said, and some of them were less preten- 
tious. During the years between 1796 and 1815, however, the character 
of the locality had changed, and some of the old gave way to the new when 
the retail and shopping trade had obtained a foothold, and the character of 
the structures was made to conform to the business rather than the resi- 
dential idea. The valuation of property about 1815 from No. 123 to 207 
Broadway is of interest. It ranged from $90,000 for the City Hotel at No. 
123 to $10,000 for the dry goods store which stood at No. 207. 

The fashionable shopping side of Broadway in the beginning of the 
last century, and, indeed, well into the middle of it, was the west, and the 
improvement in architecture was also more rapid there. On the east side 
the buildings first erected were mainly two story structures, but after the 
Revolution these gave place to first-class buildings, which were occupied 
for commercial purposes, among them Barnum's Hotel, which in 1851 was 
named the Howard House; the Tremont Temperance House, which stood at 
No. 110 Broadway; the New York Atheneum, on the corner of Pine street, 
and the National Hotel, at No. 112 Broadway. 

It is only within the last sixty or seventy years that all the cross 
streets leading into Broadway in this section have been widened and 
improved. In 1813 Liberty street was widened to Greenwich; 1834, 
Pine street (originally King street) from Broadway to Nassau, and Fulton 
street, from Broadway to Rider's Alley; 1836, John street, from Broadway 
to Pearl street; 1851, Dey street, from Broadway to Greenwich; 1852, 
Liberty street, from Broadway to Greenwich, and 1854, Wall street, from 
Broadway to Nassau street. 

From Vesey street to Duane street, Broadway was improved but 
little until the inclosure of the Fields and their establishment as a park, 
in 1785. When it was first surveyed in 1760 from "the Spring Garden 
House to the grounds of the late Widow Rutgers," it was named Great 
George street, and for thirty years thereafter was so called. On its west 
side was the church farm, and on its east the Fields and the burying ground 
for negroes. The church farm extended from Fulton street to near Duane, 
and west to the North River. The Dutch West India Company in the early 
days set apart this ground to be tilled for the uses of their public officers 
and the garrison in the fort, and it was so used until the overturning of 
the government of the colony by the English, when it became their prop- 
erty, and was called the King's Farm. Lord Cornbury, when Governor in 
1705, to encourage the Established Church, granted the ground to the 
corporation of Trinity Church, which, when Broadway was opened, divided 
it into streets and lots and ceded the former to the city. The names of 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 189 

these streets, with the exception of Park Place, originally called Robinson 
street, are the same as at the time the cession was made. 

On the site of the present Astor House stood the farm house of the 
King's Farm. Its vicissitudes were many, it is recorded. After its original 
use it became a private dwelling, then a drovers' inn, and then a public 
garden. About 1794 it gave place to the home of John Jacob Astor, and in 
1838 the Astor House was built on its site. "Where the two roads meet," 
was the designation given by the occupant of one of the old farm houses, 
Cornelius Vandenberg, in his advertisement in December, 174 7, notifying 
the public "that I design to set out as Albany post, for the first time this 
winter, on next Thursday. All letters to go by me are to be sent to the 
postoffice, or to my house near the Spring Garden." 

A record of 1760 shows the lease of four lots on the southwest corner 
of Murray street, for twenty-one years, at a rental of £8 a year — the first 
lease of Trinity Church property along Broadway. 











^k>i. 



h. 



-ti, 



SURRENDER OF NEW AMSTERDAM BY PETER STUYVESANT, 1664. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



(1800.) 

Broadway from Vesey to Duane Street — Montagnie's Garden — Cox's Garden 

— Contoit Garden — The Rutgers Farm — Origin of Chambers Street 

— First Dry Goods Store — Exhibition of Sewing Machine. 

More than half of the eighteenth century had passed when Mr. 
Marschalk surveyed the present Broadway from Vesey street to Duane street, 
and slow, indeed, was the growth of this section after the street had been 
opened. The Fields, as has been said, was the rallying point of the citizens 
on occasions momentous and otherwise, and to this may be attributed the 
establishment opposite them, in the days preceding the Revolution, of sev- 
eral public gardens, which were the principal features of the neighborhood. 
Near the northerly corner of Murray street was Montagnie's Garden, and 
on the block above Cox's Garden. The former was for a time the head- 
quarters of the Liberty Boys, and directly opposite it they raised their suc- 
cessive poles, which were as often demolished by the soldiers and the Tory 
faction. In 1770 a party of soldiers who had failed to demolish a liberty 
pole drove the onlookers into the Montagnie house at the point of the 
bayonet, and destroyed its doors and windows. The owner incensed the 
patriots a short time afterward, however, by renting his rooms to members 
of the opposite faction, and the patriots removed their headquarters to a 
building which they purchased at the lower end of the Fields, Hampden 
Hall, before written of. Montagnie continued to occupy the premises, but 
changed the name to the United States Garden, until 1802, when John H. 
Contoit, a confectioner, became the owner. He conducted it until 1805, 
afterward removing to near Park Place and establishing the New York 
Garden, which he transferred in 1809 to No. 355 Broadway, the Park 
Place site giving way to private residences. The old Contoit Garden passed 
into the hands of Augustus Parise in 1805, and some years after was suc- 
ceeded by a building called the Parthenon, which in 1825 was occupied 
as a museum under the auspices of Reuben Peale. The museum occupied 
the second, third and fourth stories, says an advertisement of the date 
mentioned, and "has a terraced roof commanding a capital view of the park 
and all the neighboring streets, together with the city and harbor." 

These gardens and a few scattered small buildings were the only im- 
provements existing opposite the Fields until the period when the name 
of the street was changed to Broadway for its entire distance north of 
Vesey street, and when it was extended to the Rutgers farm, near Duane 
street, in 1794. After this year the march of private improvement began 
on the block between Vesey and Barclay streets, and fine residences, built 

190 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 191 

and occupied by leading citizens, gave an increased value to the surround- 
ing section. The Rutherfords, the Kings, the Roosevelts, the Harrisons, 
and the Hammonds resided here. No. 221, next to the corner of Vesey 
street, was the property of the State, and in 1802 was the official residence 
of Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States. No. 223, owned by 
John Jacob Astor, was the home of Edward Livingston, mayor of the city 
from 1801 to 1803. The portion of the street lying north of Barclay 
street was not so progressive, however, and it was some years before the 
inferior class of buildings occupying it gave way to residences of a sub- 
stantial character. After 1815 the block between Barclay street and Park 
Place began to assume an air of respectability, which afterward pervaded 
the block between the latter thoroughfare and Murray street. Among 
the residents here were William Rhinelander, Daniel Boardman, John Hag- 
gerty and Samuel Hicks. Between Murray and Chambers streets new 
buildings were being erected, and with their completion the Fields became 
a thing of the past, to be referred to as at present. By 1827 two hotels 
had been established on this section of Broadway, the American, 
on the corner of Barclay street, "occupying the most eligible situation in 
the city, and being in the vicinity of the City Hall and theatres," and the 
Park Place House, "opposite the park and in the street that leads to 
Columbia College." The Irving House, a fashionable hostelry, which stood 
on the northwest corner of Chambers street and Broadway, was erected 
later, and was a point of popular Interest for a time. In it John C. Colt 
had his office, and there he murdered a printer named Adams, who was 
getting out a work on bookkeeping for him. By a curious chain of cir- 
cumstances the vessel on which the body of the printer had been shipped 
to South America by Colt was driven ashore by adverse winds, and the 
authorities in some way discovered that a murder had been committed. 
It was traced to Colt, who was tried and sentenced to be executed. On 
the morning of the day set for the execution the murderer committed 
suicide, though rumor had it that the body of a pauper convict had been 
substituted, and that Colt had escaped to France. 

A report of the Common Council in June, 1796, is of interest as show- 
ing the origin of Chambers street and the establishment of the boundaries 
of the park. 

"The committee on the memorial of Henry Kip and others, on adjust- 
ing boundary lines between the negroes' burial ground, report and recom- 
mend: 

"1. That the measure mentioned in the patent to Cornelius Van 
Borsum for said land, dated October 16, 1673, be, so far as this corporation 
is concerned, deemed English statute measure. 

"2. That a street sixty-five feet wide, to remain a public street, be 
laid out opposite Chambers street, and to extend from Broadway to the 
east side of George street, and thence to Augustus street, as delineated 
on map annexed. 

"3. That the claimants to the burying ground release to the cor- 
portation their interest in the land so laid out for a street, and also of all 
land to the south of said street, and the corporation will release to said 
claimants all their interest in land north of the said street. 



192 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

"4. To compensate the claimants for the difference in extent of lands 
conveyed by them and those conveyed to them by the corporation, the cor- 
poration will convey to them lands bounded southeast by Augustus street, 
south by the street to be opened (Chambers), northwest by the negroes' 
burial ground, and northeast by land of Janeway, and also certain lots on 
southeast side of Augustus street. 

"Agreed to." 

It was some years after the Revolution that this land was improved. 
According to a map of the locality of the year mentioned, the descendants 
of David Provoost, mayor of the city in 1699-1700, owned the threa build- 
ings next to the corner of Chambers street, the only ones on the block. 
On the southeast corner of Reade street a temporary one-story structure 
stood until the erection of Washington Hall on its site in 1812. From an 
architectural point of view this building was one of the handsomest in the 
city. It was erected under the auspices of the Washington Benevolent 
Society, who were the Federalists of that day, and was the Federal head- 
quarters at about the time that old Tammany Hall was built by the opposi- 
tion party. The political problems of the young city were thrashed out 
within its walls, and many exciting scenes of the period antedating the last 
war with Great Britain occurred in its assembly hall. In 1828 it was 
altered and repaired by Chester Bailey, of Philadelphia, to serve as a hotel, 
but was ill adapted for the purpose, and finally in 1848 it became the prop- 
erty of A. T. Stewart, who erected on its site the present marble building, 
which was the pioneer of that class of structures on Broadway. He 
gradually added to the territory and building he possessed, until a store of 
astonishing size for that period covered the entire block from Chambers 
street to Reade street, and 200 feet back from Broadway. It became the 
wholesale house after its owner purchased his uptown property. It is an 
office building now. 

The pioneer dry goods merchant first began business on the west side 
of Broadway directly opposite the present Stewart Building. This block 
was first improved by William Alexander, who in 1796 erected a handsome 
residence on the corner of Reade street. With the exception of a three-story 
brick house which stood in the middle of the block, the other structures 
were of wood. In one of these, with its gable end to the street, A. T. 
Stewart established two stores, each about twelve feet wide, and started on 
his road to fortune. Its owner was Anthony Steenbach, a brewer. 

The west side of Broadway, from Chambers to Duane street, was first 
improved, if the term may be used, by the erection of a brewery on the 
corner of the latter street. It continued in existence until Duane street 
was improved in the middle of the last century, and from its term of exist- 
ence, which antedated the Revolution, was known as the Old Brewery. 
Between Reade and Duane streets stood a pottery, erected late in 1700, and 
belonging to an alderman of the city, who afterward sold the site to Isaac 
Lawrence. On it the latter built a row of brick buildings, some of which 
stood as relics of the past until a short time ago. 

The first dry goods store above St. Paul's Church was opened on the 
corner of Broadway and Chambers street, in a row of small one-story build- 
ings built on ground purchased by Steenbach, the brewer, mentioned above, 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 193 

v/lio was said to have been a venturesome real estate operator of that day. 
The buildings fronted on Chambers street, and their erection was considered 
a risky undertaking by those "in the know," but the descendants of the 
brewer profited by his investment, as in 1830 the ground alone brought 
nearly ten times the amount of the purchase price. A well known and 
popular resort of the days of the youthful city stood on the corner of Reade 
street, Palmo's Cafe. Its owner afterward forsook his occupation to erect 
an opera house in Chambers street, which later became Burton's Theatre, 
a history of which was given in another chapter. 

Three doors south of Duane street, on Broadway, the first sewing 
machine was exhibited. People watched the operation of the rather 
primitive machine with surprise, coupled with much distrust as to 
its utility for household use. It was an impossible thing, and, even 
if perfected, would be injurious to the needlewoman who must work in 
order to live. The matrons would have none of it — handwork was good 
enough for them. But the little machine kept clicking each day, and what 
it produced was exhibited, despite the unbelief of the women, and the men, 
too. Meetings were held in some quarters to support the handworkers, 
and protests were raised against its introduction. It had come to stay, 
and stay it did. 

The history of Broadway is now verging on a section the origin of 
which the historian knows little about. It is "Kalckhook," or lime shell 
point, which began at a vale near the present line of Duane street, and 
rose gradually to an elevation of forty or fifty feet above the surrounding 
meadows. A pond an acre or more in size lay at its summit. According 
to the early maps of the colony, what was known as "The Kalckhook" 
embraced about forty acres, and was granted to Jan Damen in 1646 by 
Governor Kieft. It was a useless piece of ground, apparently, as an exten- 
sive cretaceous deposit covered nearly its whole extent and precluded the 
possibility of cultivation. What it once was is a matter of conjecture, 
though the Information gathered from its location and from the fact that 
the pond on its summit was well supplied with fish, as well as the existence 
of Indian tribes on the island, points to the spot as at least a temporary set- 
tlement of aborigines. It is only conjecture, however, as from no source 
can evidence of its use at all be gleaned. 

In 1685 the partition of this part of the Damen estate occurred, and 
it became the property of four men, two of whom were Jacobus Van Cort- 
landt and Anthony Rutgers. It lay in common, however, for many years 
afterward, as the public pound was established on it. 

The Van Cortlandt portion of "The Kalckhook" reriiained in the family 
for over a century, unimproved, while the Rutgers tract to the west in 1730 
began to evidence its owner's prodigality in its reclamation. On it a hand- 
some residence was built, which he occupied until his death in 1750. "Sur- 
rounding it," says an old chronicler, "was elegant shrubbery in the geo- 
metrical style of rural gardening of those days, with long walks, bordered 
with boxwood and shaded and perfumed with flowering shrubs, extending 
in various directions in the parterre fronting the house. The orchard ex- 
tended along the southerly side of the mansion, while the pasture lands and 
cultivated fields extended toward the north. It was a charming rural resi- 



194 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

dence, and even in after years, when its quiet and domestic characteristics 
had given place to the festive incidents attached to a public resort, it was 
considered the most rural and pleasing retreat near the city." 

Very much like the people of the present New York were those of the 
eighteenth century, in the matter of suburban pleasure seeking, and to 
Ranelagh, as the former residence and garden of Colonel Rutgers was called 
by its new proprietor after the colonel's death, the best citizens repaired to 
feast, dance and listen to music on Monday and Thursday evenings during 
the summer, "where everything," according to an advertisement of the year 
preceding the Revolution, "is conducted under the auspices of Mr. John 
Jones." 

In 1770 the Rutgers estate was offered for sale, and was purchased in 
1772 by an organization of citizens who designed to build a hospital on the 
ground — an institution then unknown in New York. It was at first pro- 
posed to establish it in the park, but the project was abandoned because of 
its proximity to the heart of the city, and the Rutgers orchard was fixed 
upon. Most of the fund had been subscribed in 1771 for the purpose, and in 
lieu of the land which had previously been set apart for it the corporation 
added il,000. In 1774 the building was completed at a cost of nearly 
$18,000, and the following year was partly destroyed by fire. During the 
occupation of the British it had been sufficiently repaired to serve as a 
barracks for the soldiers. After the return of peace it was reopened for its 
original purpose. This is the beginning of the history of the present New 
York Hospital. 

The improvement of this section was undertaken shortly after 
1783 by the regulation and opening of streets. Because of the natural 
unevenness of the surface much filling and excavating were required in 
various parts, as, for instance, when sidewalks were first proposed, in 1791, 
to extend from the Bridewell in the park to the hospital, it was reported by 
the surveyor that Broadway at Warren and Chambers streets would require 
to be lowered three feet, while at the depressed portion through which 
Duane street was laid out it would be necessary to raise it about eight feet. 
Nearing the hospital ten feet would have to be taken away. The work was 
begun in 1792, and the sidewalks stopped opposite the house of David M. 
Clarkson, which was across the way from the hospital. It was designed, 
however, to proceed with the digging of the street as far as the Meadows 
at Canal street, though it was some years before the work was completed. 
The deepest cutting down of Broadway was between the present White and 
Walker streets, twenty-three feet of the hill having to be taken away to 
meet the valley at the Meadows. 

A few of the streets in the section have retained their original names, 
as White, Walker, Canal, Catharine Lane and Leonard. Duane street was 
once known as Barley street, after a brewery west of Broadway; Pearl 
street at Broadway was originally Magazine street, as it led past the old 
powder house on the little island in the Collect Pond; Worth street had 
two changes — Catherine street and then Anthony street, and Franklin 
street was in the old days Sugar-loaf street. 



CHAPTER XL. 



(1800.) 

East Side of Broadway, Between Duane and Pearl Streets — Masonic Hall — 

The Morgan Murder — The De Puyster Dairy — The White 

Conduit House — Another Conduit Garden. 

It was well toward the beginning of the nineteenth century when the 
improvement of the east side of Broadway between Duane and Pearl streets 
was begun, but before its dawn the whole front had been built upon. Most 
of the structures were of wood, with the exception of two which had been 
erected by a Mr. Nichols. These were of brick and considered of an excel- 
lent class. Among their occupants in after years were William Cutting, a 
forebear of the present New York family; John C. Stevens, John Tonnele, 
Jr., and Mr. Rapelje, whose present descendants are prominent in New 
York business and social life. About 1819 John McKesson, and afterward 
H. H. Schieffelin, resided in No. 366, a house which at that period surpassed 
any of its neighbors. Several of the frame buildings stood until near the 
middle of 1800, while others were demolished in 1826 to supply the site for 
old Masonic Hall, an edifice of the pure Gothic style, its front built of east- 
ern gray granite, with the sides and interior walls of brick, and its upper 
windows commanding a view of the city, harbor and adjacent country. An 
apartment in this building which became a favorite resort of assemblies of 
citizens was considered the finest in point of beauty of any other for a 
similar purpose in the United States. The cost of constructing Masonic 
Hall was $.50,000, quite a sum of money at that time, which was raised by 
the fraternity in the city. 

The prosperity of Masonic Hall began to wane soon after the building 
was completed, as the following short history of the anti-Masonic excite- 
ment which started in 1826 will show. One William Morgan, a recreant 
Mason of Batavia, N. Y., threatened to expose the secrets of the fraternity 
because of some fancied wrong done him. He suddenly disappeared, and it 
was charged that he had been abducted and afterward murdered by the 
fraternity. Political strife in the city was strong at the time, and the 
charge was soon converted into a political weapon. A combination was 
formed against the Masons, who at this time were a large and flourishing 
body, extravagant rumors of diabolical practice in their conclaves were cir- 
culated, and at the elections of 18 27 the people threw aside previous party 
allegiances and ranged themselves as Masons or anti-Masons at the polls. 
A number of prominent papers opened a crusade against the society, public 
meetings were held at which members who had withdrawn from it de- 
nounced it as a bed of wickedness and Intriguing, and it was persecuted in 

195 



196 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

a way almost fanatical. So great was the prejudice throughout the com- 
munity against it that its existence was threatened. Its success, though, 
v:as paralyzed for many years, and the society became almost a dead letter. 
The fate of Morgan was never positively known, though a body found in 
Lake Ontario was declared to be his by the anti-Masonic party. The expres- 
sion "a good enough Morgan till after election," based on this incident, 
originated with the friends of the Masons, and was used during the election 
excitement. It was at this period the name Gothic Hall was given the 
building, and as late as 1844 a city paper recorded the fact that it had 
changed hands, its stockholders having received neither principal nor in- 
terest on their investment. It was torn down about 1855, and on its site, 
Nos. 314 and 316 Broadway, improved and what were considered at the^ 
time elegant structures were built. 

Between Pearl and Worth streets stood a brewery, built shortly after 
the Revolution by a man whose widow married the brewer Steenbach, and 
their residence was on the southeast corner of Broadway and 
the present Worth street, and on the northeast was that of 
Steenbach's partner. The entrance to the brewery and malt-house 
was on Worth street. Fronting Broadway and attached to each of the 
dwelling houses were large kitchen gardens, which were afterward built 
upon by Stephen Conover, executor of Brewer Steenbach. The Broadway 
Theatre was the principal building on this block in after years, but a short 
time after 1850 it gave place to marble stores erected by James R. Whiting. 

The block north of this one had but one house on it two or 
three years prior to 1800. The land was the property of the bre-^ery 
owners. Within a few years, however, residences of a good class 
were erected on it and were occupied at different periods by such well 
known leading New York citizens as John Griscom, Gilbert Robertson, Ed- 
ward Laight and J. R. Beekman. About 1836 the Sixth Free Presbyterian 
Church, with the largest accommodation of any then in the city, was erected 
here between Worth street and Catharine Lane. It stood upon lots in the 
rear of those on Broadway, with its entrance on this thoroughfare at No. 
340. Some time about 1840 its name was changed to the Tabernacle. Its 
history is identified with many gatherings of the people on important occa- 
sions. In it Wendell Phillips, Gerrit Smith and Lucretia Mott thundered 
forth their opinions on slavery. 

An interesting business history surrounds the block between Catharine 
Lane and Leonard street. Before the grade of the street was lowered two 
small frame buildings stood on it. In one of them, after the grade was 
made, Stephen Conover established his hardware store, the first in that sec- 
tion of the city. It stood on the corner of Leonard street, and afterward 
gave place to the building of the New York Society Library Association, 
which had previously been located in Nassau street, opposite the old post- 
office. This institution was the oldest of its kind in the city. In 1836 it 
sold its Nassau street property for $44,200, and with this and other monies 
derived from the New York Athenaeum, which had merged with it, it pur- 
chased the site on Broadway, 60 feet front and 100 feet deep, for $47,500. 
The building was completed in 1839, at a cost of $70,000, and was occupied 
by the association until 1853, when it was sold to Appleton & Co., pub- 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 197 

lishers, for $110,000. The New York Life Insurance Building stands on the 
ground. 

What was before the Revolution the private dairy farm of Mrs. Mar- 
garet De Peyster is now the block betv/een Leonard and Franklin streets. 
Originally a portion of the Kalckhook south of the Van Cortlandt property, 
it had passed into the hands of the De Peysters, who used it as pasture land 
to supply themselves with home-made butter and fresh milk, as was the 
custom among the wealthy families at the time. After the death of Mrs. 
De Peyster and the partition of the estate this ground was put on the 
market and sold by the heirs, one of v.rhom married David M. Clarkson, a 
New York merchant, who soon after the Revolution erected a residence 
about midv/ay between the two streets, on the east side of Broadway. The 
house stood fifty feet back from the street, and was surrounded by a large 
garden, which extended along the present Leonard street to about the line 
of Elm. Early in 1800 the owner of this property, which was about 160 
feet on Broadway and 380 feet deep, sold it to Rufus King and John Law- 
rence for $30,000. In 1813, three years after the partition of the various 
lots had been made by King and Lav/rence, houses of a superior class were 
constructed on this block, and toward the middle of the last century the 
Carlton House was built on the site of two of them, Nos. 350 and 352. 

Old newspaper advertisements of 1796 tell us that "Rickett's Amphi- 
theatre is to rent for circus and theatrical performances and for panoramic 
exhibitions." It was situated on Broadway, north of White street, and its 
site many years before was used by Itinerant circus performers who found 
their way to New York "and were accustomed to exhibit on the hill above 
the Collect." 

North of Franklin street improvements were deferred some years. A 
great part of the property was held by old Van Cortlandt representatives and 
some by the Corporation, especially the lots which had been used for reser- 
voir purposes. The few disconnected cottages occupying the east side of 
Broadway, between Franklin and Canal streets, went down before the 
march of improvements in 1816 or 1817, and handsome residences took their 
places. Some of these were between Franklin and White streets, and were 
owned and occupied by William M. Cutting, John M. Bradhurst and Richard 
Kingsland. The Cutting residence was occupied later by John Jacob Astor 
and remained until the middle of the century. Between the two streets 
north the first improvement was made by the widow of Goldsborough Banyar 
and by Peter A. Jay. 

The site occupied during a part of the last century by Florence's 
Hotel, on the northeast corner of Walker street, was the beginning of the 
permanent improvement on the block between Walker and Canal streets, 
George Bruce afterward improving the corner of the latter street. Many 
buildings of a public character were later erected in this neighborhood — the 
Minerva Rooms, at No. 404; Enterprise Hall, at No. 410, and the Apollo 
Gallery, at No. 412. Before the opening of the last century the weet side of 
the thoroughfare in this locality had twenty-two houses, beginning with the 
public house and garden of Conrad Vanderbeck, on the northwest corner 
of Duane street, and ending with the tannery of Thomas Duggan, near the 
stone bridge which was afterward the line of Canal street. 



igS CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

The White Conduit House had a history all its own. It was one of the 
old city's suburban gardens, and stood on the top of the Kalckhook hill 
before Broadway was cut through, with an extensive view from its high 
stoop of the surrounding country. It was the scene of many quiet gather- 
ings of the middle class citizens, it appears, until near the beginning of 
the year 1800. It occupied what is now the west side of Broadway, between 
Leonard and Worth streets. 

Another public garden may also be mentioned, which stood near Leon- 
ard street in 1796, and was kept by a Frenchman, M. Corri, a pioneer seller 
of mead and cakes on the Battery, who afterward obtained the permission 
of the corporation to illumine his stand with colored lamps — a novelty to 
the citizens of the old town. In 1805 it was known as Mount Vernon Gar- 
den, and, not having been displaced by the cutting through of the street, 
stood high above the neighboring structures. Flying horses and other 
amusements were furnished by M. Corri to his patrons. It was near this 
house that John H. Contoit, in 1809, established his second New York 
Garden, after leaving the site opposite the park. Its plain wooden entrance 
was overshadowed with trees, and inside were shady nooks, dimly lit by 
colored lanterns. An old New Yorker says: "Many a match was made in 
these old gardens, which to-day would seem to the eye but the acme of 
rural simplicity, but to the older city offered all that was enjoyable on a 
moonlight night in the island of Manhattan." The famous Taylor's restau- 
rant, frequented by all the society belles of the day, stood on the north 
corner of Franklin street in the early forties. 

Up to 1815 the limit of improvements of Broadway was the section 
written of. Five years afterward, however, the street was almost entirely 
lined with a fair class of buildings, which remained until the middle of 
1800. The introduction of gas south of Canal street in 1825 gave an im- 
petus to business in the thoroughfare. At this period its west side was 
extensively patronized as the fashionable shopping mart, and many of the 
dry goods stores had been transferred from the section below St. Paul's 
Church, and were following the population which was filling up the cross 
streets below Canal street, so that it became the busy part of the city. 

The one thing that causes the delver into the city's history more con- 
cern than any other is the inactivity displayed by the citizens of old New 
York in the draining of the Fresh Water Pond and filling up the meadows 
extending to the North River. 

Soon after the Revolution measures were taken for the improvement, 
and commissioners were appointed under an act of the legislature, but it 
was well on to 1810 when a street one hundred feet wide was formed, with 
a ditch or open canal in its centre, bordered with shade trees, and on either 
side a broad drive lined with habitations. No puzzle half so formid- 
able as the proper course to be pursued with the swamp in this region was 
encountered by the corporation. Broadway was graded below the stone 
bridge, and for some distance above. Spring street was even marked out 
and houses built in certain parts of it, and yet nothing but a small, slug- 
gish stream of water marked the site of the present Canal street. At some 
seasons of the year the Lispenard Meadows were overflowed with water, 
and in winter they were used as a skating pond by the sport loving citizens. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. i99 

Scheme after scheme was proposed to drain them, but the nineteenth cen- 
tury had well advanced before any of them were put into operation and the 
work was completed. 

It is the opinion of many that the stone bridge which crossed the drain 
at Canal street and Broadway was built by the authorities of the city. In 
no record, however, is mention made of any action by them in the premises. 
It was of a very substantial character, and the first evidence of its existence 
is a map executed during the War of the Revolution, leading to the belief 
that it was constructed for military purposes, as there were extensive 
fortifications on each side of it, on the Kalckhook and on Bayard's farm. 

The Middle Road, as Broadway above Canal street was commonly 
known before its regulation as far as Astor Place in 1809, was not wholly 
unimproved prior to the beginning of the last century. Several adventur- 
ous pioneers, despite the protests of the inhabitants, erected a few one and 
two story houses on it, the oldest standing at what is now the corner of 
Grand street, and becoming in later years the site of the Broadway House. 
The regulation of this thoroughfare above the stone bridge to Astor Place, 
which was originally the line of a road leading from the hamlet called "the 
Bowery," from its vicinity to Governor Stuyvesant's farm, to Sapokanican, 
or Greenwich, was a matter of grave concern to the citizens, chiefly from 
the difficulties arising out of the discordant action respecting the plan of 
regulating Canal street, and the conflicting interests of the owners of land, 
who even at that day were considering how its value could be increased by 
accepting certain city improvements. The greater part of the land lying 
east and west between the present Astor Place and the meadows at Canal 
street was what was known as the Bayard farms, their dividing line being 
the middle of Broadway. The portion to the west extended from the 
meadows to near Bleecker street, and the eastern portion to a point between 
Prince and Houston streets. North of the west farm was the Herring estate, 
and of the east, adjoining a small tract of land belonging to Alderman Dyck- 
man, was the Anthony L. Bleecker farm, through which the street of that 
name was afterward run. The Bayard farm was bounded on the east by the 
Bowery and on the west by an irregular line extending to Macdougal street. 
In 1751 its owner, Nicholas Bayard, erected his Mansion House on this 
farm, at what is now the block bounded by Grand, Broome, Crosby and Elm 
streets, and established an avenue called Bayard's Lane, which led up to 
the house, the entrance gate being at the Bowery Road. The present Broome 
street is laid out on nearly the same line. The property was cut up by 
military works during the war, defensive lines on the outskirts of the city 
running across it. After the close of the Revolution its owner found him- 
self financially embarrassed, it is said, and mortgaged the west farm, which 
contained one hundred acres, for £7,000. This was afterward placed in the 
hands of trustees, who divided it into parcels of various sizes and sold them. 

At a point on Broadway near the present Spring street was the junc- 
tion of two private lanes through the Bayard farm, one of which led south- 
westerly to the North River shore at Lispenard's Meadows, and the other 
in a westerly course, terminating near Richmond Hill. At the present 
Third street was another lane, which led from the Bowery to Richmond 
Hill, along the southerly side of the Herring land. 



200 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



The Middle Road in 1802 was ordered surveyed from Canal street to the 
southwest corner of the present Prince street, and the Street Commissioner 
was directed to report as to "the best method of turnpiking it." He recom- 
mended that it be paved forty feet wide, with sidewalks ten feet wide, and 
that a row of trees be planted on each side, ten feet apart. While this plan 
was at first adopted, it was afterward repealed on account of the hesitancy 
of the authorities regarding the improving of Canal street. Some regulating 
of the street was carried out, however, a short time afterward, and m 180 5 
the recommendations of the Commissioner were put in force, and the follow- 
in- year the improvements were extended to Great Jones street. The next 
yelv saw them carried as far as Art street, the present Astor Place The 
laying of pavements and construction of sidewalks soon followed, so that by 
November. 1809. the corporation was in a position to accept the offer of 
Samuel Burling, one of the citizens, to furnish as many poplar trees as 
might be necessary to line Broadway from Leonard street to Art street, pro- 
vided they would move and set them without expense to him. Property 
owners were also anxious to add to the beauty of the street, which was 
considered the pride of the city, and offered to supply carts to move the 
trees so that in a short time Broadway became renowned both as a dwelling 
and business locality, and remained so until the young city tore away the 
barriers and pushed further north. 




CHAPTER XII. 



(1802-1816.) 



Academy of Fine Arts Founded — City Comptroller Appointed — Period of 

Duelling — Yellov/ Fever Scourge — Death of Alexander Hamilton — 

Founding of New York Historical Society and Musical Society. 

Though the opening of the nineteenth century saw an obstinate po- 
litical struggle for the supremacy of a national party being fought in the 
city, the growth of New York was still on the increase. In rapid ratio its 
inhabitants and institutions multiplied, the former numbering 60,000. 
Shipping was also increasing, the leases of the wharves, piers and slips 
bringing to the treasury of the city between $12,000 and $13,000 a year. 
On February 12, 1802, the Academy of Fine Arts was founded by Chancellor 
Livingston, and a suite of rooms for exhibition purposes was opened in. the 
old government house facing the Bowling Green. In after years it was 
located in the New York Institution, in Chambers street, a free lease having 
been given to the society by the city. Through Chancellor Livingston a 
collection of pictures was presented to it by the First Consul of the French 
Republic, Napoleon Bonaparte. 

This month the city was in a political ferment. The returns of the 
electoral votes had shown the triumph of the Republican ticket, but an 
equal number had been received by Jefferson and Burr, which was any- 
thing but agreeable to the party. The decision rested upon the House of 
Representatives, voting by States. There were sixteen then in the Union, 
and a majority of these was necessary to a choice. For seven days the bal- 
loting went on, and on the thirty-sixtli Jefferson was found to liave received 
the votes of ten States, while four adhered to Burr and two cast blank bal- 
lots. Jefferson was thereupon declared President, and Burr, by law, became 
Vice-President. On March 4 the bells of the city were rung in honor of the 
event. 

In April the New York election for Governor occurred, and was spirited 
and rancorous. Rumors were circulated that thousands of tenants on the 
Van Rensselaer estates were to be prosecuted for non-payment of rents 
unless they voted for the owner. The stories were denied, though they had 
the desired eiTect. His opponent, Clinton, was chosen by more than 4,000 
majority. In August of this year Edward Livingston was appointed Mayor 
of the city, a post at this time of great dignity and importance, as he not 
only presided over the deliberations of the Common Council, but was the 
presiding judge of a high court of record, with both civil and criminal juris- 
diction. Liberal fees and perquisites and a few years' incumbency tended to 
the acquiring of a handsome fortune in the office. 



202 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

Many things of interest occurred during 1801, among them the estab- 
lishment of the United States Navy Yard in Brooklyn, and of a ferry be- 
tween "Hurlgate" and Hallett's Cove; also the sale of fifteen lots of the 
common land for $8,050, "and the ordering Broadway to be continued and 
opened through Thomas Randall's land to meet the Bowery road." The 
total valuation of the city and county at this time was $21,964,037, and a 
tax of one mill on the dollar was laid. A City Comptroller was appointed, 
and the piers, beginning at the Battery and going east and north, were 
numbered. 

The year 1802 foreshadowed an event in history known to the student. 
The hollow position of Vice-President was unsatisfactory to Aaron Burr, 
and he saw many obstacles to his becoming the next Republican President. 
He was using every means to create a party of his own, so as to be an inde- 
pendent power in politics. Through him dissatisfaction was increasing and 
party strife was apparently solidly imbedded. Duels were the order of the 
day between his friends and those who opposed him. One of these took 
place at Weehawken between George L. Eacker, a partisan of Burr, and a 
friend of the eldest son of Alexander Hamilton named Price; another 
between young Hamilton and Eacker, from the wounds received in which 
Hamilton died, and another in Love Lane (Twenty-first street) between the 
brother of Jeremiah Thompson, once Collector of the Port, and William 
Coleman, editor of "The Evening Post," which about this time first made 
its bow to the public. Indeed, it seemed to be a period of duelling. A Board 
of Health was established in 1802, as was also a Vaccine, or Kine Pock, 
Institution, the first of the kind in the city. 

In 1803 Edward Livingston resigned the office of Mayor, and De Witt 
Clinton was appointed to succeed him. The latter had been a resident of 
the city from early youth, and had the honor of being the first graduate of 
Columbia College after its change of name. The Historical Society was 
founded under his auspices and the Public School Society was instituted 
by him. He held office for twelve years, when he resigned, and afterward 
became Governor to mature the gigantic scheme of canal navigation. 

An appalling visitation of yellow fever about the middle of the year 
spread consternation throughout the length and breadth of the city, and 
so great and universal was the public alarm that all who could leave the 
city fled to places of safety. Mayor Livingston, who had not resigned at 
the time, remained at his post, bound, as he declared, by a sacred contract 
to face the terrible enemy and alleviate suffering to the extent of his 
power. He went about the streets at night to see if the watchmen were 
doing their duty, and visited the hospitals every day, his presence encour- 
aging the nurses and physicians. In the latter part of September he 
succumbed to the fever, but recovered after a severe illness, the news- 
papers announcing the fact and the whole city hailing it with joy. During 
his illness and while the pestilence was raging his confidential clerk em- 
bezzled a large portion of the public funds, and he found himself indebted 
to the United States, without means to liquidate the debt. He bravely sur- 
rendered all his property for the security of the government and then re- 
signed. From July 26 to the end of November 670 died from fever. The 
Merchants' Bank began operations this year, and some time after the stock" 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 203 

holders presented to the State one thousand of its shares as a fund for the 
support of public schools. 

The political storm that had been brewing in New York from 1801 
broke in March, 1804. In February of the latter year Jefferson was unan- 
imously chosen for re-election, and Clinton was substituted for Burr as the 
Vice-Presidential candidate. The latter, finding himself left out of the 
national nomination, resolved to seek the nomination for Governor of New 
York through an appeal to the people. His supporters had become a recog- 
nized power in the State, and announced him as an independent candidate 
against Judge Morgan Lewis, the Republican nominee. Newspaper person- 
alities became rampant on both sides, and Burr's private character was as- 
sailed in the most obnoxious manner up to the day of election. Much 
exultation existed among his supporters when it was found that he had 
received a majority of nearly 100 votes in the city, but it was short lived 
when the returns from the country showed a clear defeat of Burr and the 
election of Lewis. The former attributed his defeat mainly to the powerful 
influence of Hamilton, especially as in one of two letters published during 
election times, from the pen of Dr. Charles D. Cooper, General Hamilton 
said: "Burr is a dangerous man and one who ought not to be trusted with 
the reins of government." The purport of these letters came under Burr's 
notice some weeks after the election, and the duel of July 11, 1804, with 
which every student is familiar, was the result. The news of the wounding 
of Hamilton stunned the entire city and business was practically suspended. 
With the announcement of his death "a cry of execration upon his mur- 
derer burst from the lips and hearts of the multitude." 

It was a sorrowful city that witnessed Hamilton's funeral. The cere- 
monies attending it were conducted by the Cincinnati, whose chief the dead 
statesman had been, and the oration was made by Gouverneur Morris. 
When the parting volley had been fired over his grave the vast crowd 
which had attended the services in Old Trinity carried to their homes a 
sense of profound sorrow and bereavement. With the death of Hamilton, 
Burr ceased to be a political leader, and on March 2, when he took formal 
leave of the Senate, vanished from the arena of politics, never to reappear. 

The great fire in this year occurred on the night of December 18, 
breaking out in a grocery store in Front street. "The whole block from the 
west side of Coffee House Slip, in Water street, to the next door to Gouver- 
neur's lane, and including all the buildings in Front street to the water, 
were swept away. The fire crossed Wall street and destroyed the buildings 
on the east side of the slip. About forty stores and dwelling houses were 
consumed, entailing a loss of about $1,500,000. The fire was supposed to 
have been the work of eleven combined incendiaries, from an anonymous 
letter sent to a merchant previous to the event." 

"A priceless inheritance to all future generations," the founding of 
the New York Historical Society, was given to the city on the afternoon of 
November 20, 1804, through the instrumentality of Judge Egbert Benson 
and John Pintard. Its foundation was laid in the picture room of the City 
Hall, in Wall street, and active measures were at once taken to secure 
books, manuscripts, letters, documents, statistics and newspapers relating 
directly or remotely to American history, and pictures, antiquities, medals. 



204 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

coins and specimens of natural history. The association soon grew in favor, 
and its numbers increased slowly but steadily as the work went on of ran- 
sacking garrets and trunks in the city for letters, papers and documents 
which had been cast aside as worthless, and which were records and data 
of the city's history. By action of the legislature the archives of 
France, Holland and England were examined, and important and long lost 
documents of value to the State government were unearthed. Indeed, the 
work of the society will challenge comparison with institutions of similar 
character fostered by older civilizations. 

The New York Historical Society occupied its first meeting place from 
1804 to 1809, and was then removed to the Government House, opposite the 
Bowling Green, which it occupied until 1816. In this year it found quarters 
in the New York Institution, remaining until 1841, when it removed to the 
New York University. In 18 57, after struggling with pecuniary difficulties 
and coming out triumphant, it celebrated its fifty-third anniversary by 
taking possession of a building on the corner of Eleventh street and Second 
avenue. Its present home is 170 Central Park West. It is an institution 
worthy of its founders, and New York should be ever grateful to those who 
carry on the work, as they represent the highest culture of the city. 

The subject of common schools engrossed the attention of the citizens 
in 1805. New York had not been entirely destitute of the means of educat- 
ing her youth, however, up to this time, for opportunity had been afforded 
for universal education. Nearly every church aided in this matter, and 
private schools abounded. In this year one hundred and forty teachers were 
actively employed. Measures were necessary for the establishing of a per- 
manent system of education, as the population was increasing rapidly, and 
the incoming European multitudes were in danger of growing up hopelessly 
ignorant. Members of the Historical Society saw the drift of affairs, and 
on February 19 a meeting was called at the house of John Murray, in Pearl 
street, and a society was organized. The result was the institution of a 
free school, independent of and in nowise interfering with the schools 
already provided by churches, corporations and charitable bodies. In May, 
1806, the first school was opened in Madison street. 

"The first two months of the year saw great distress among the people 
of the city. Great quantities of snow encumbered the streets, and extraor- 
dinary expenses were incurred by the corporation and by benevolent people 
in relieving the wants of the poor." A ferry between Corlears Hook and 
Bushwick was established, and Norfolk, Essex, Fourth and Hester streets 
were ordered regulated and paved. North street was opened to the East 
River and the upper part of Broadway was also ordered paved. In March 
the bells of the city rang out and military parades took place in honor of 
the second inauguration of Jefferson as President. The Tammany Society, 
or Columbian Order, and the New England Society were formed in 1805. 

"This [1805] summer and autumn the yellow fever again prevailed, 
and one-third of the citizens left their dwellings. Over 280 persons died. 
December 18 was given over to a day of humiliation and prayer for the 
recent visitation." 

Coal, that necessity of the cultivated and uncultivated, was the subject 
of concern in the meeting of the corporation on July 29. "A premium of 



* 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 205 

$500 was offered by it for the first quantity of good pit coals, not less than 
ten chaldrons, which shall be brought to this city, having been taken from 
any pit or mine in this State, within ten miles of the seashore, or of any 
part of Hudson River, below the town of Waterford, in the county of Sara- 
toga." 

The year 1806 is memorable for the first successful attempt at steam- 
boat navigation, a full history of which has been given, and 
for the establishment of the New York County Medical Society and the 
founding of the Orphan Asylum Society, at Greenwich, under the auspices 
of Mrs. Sarah Hoffman, Mrs. Alexander Hamilton and Mrs. Bethune, wife 
of the celebrated divine, author and poet. The first building of the society 
stood in Bank street until 1840, when a new site was purchased in West 
Seventy-fourth street. On April 7 "the corporation recommended the citi- 
zens to plant trees in all the streets forty feet wide, the trees to be not less 
than twelve feet apart," and ordered the regulation of Rivington street and 
the changing of the name of Bullock street to Broome, after Lieutenant 
Governor Broome. The wharves, piers and slips were let this year to 
William Johnson for $17,000 a year, and "a sale of corporation lands took 
place at Incklenbergh (Murray Hill), of 59 half-acre lots, for $61,990, 
subject each to an annual rent forever of twenty bushels of wheat." 

Some things of interest occurred during this period which should not 
be passed over. A literary fair was held every year, either in New York or 
Philadelphia, in order to promote acquaintance of publishers and to encour- 
age the art of printing and bookbinding, also to facilitate the circulation of 
books through the country. England's high taxes and her higher price of 
paper were favorable to the American publisher, in that celebrated works 
of Old World authors were reprinted and sold for one-fourth the original 
price. The demand for these was such that the publishers themselves 
established circulating libraries. "There was no dearth of literary talent in 
the city," said an historian, "but it had been almost exclusively directed to 
political subjects and to organizing theories and testing untried institu- 
tions." The trepidation of one publisher, when the reprinting of Scott's 
"Lay of the Last Minstrel" was being considered, is amusing now. A volume 
had been sent by the author to the wife of a noted divine in the city. It 
was circulated widely, and an American reprint was suggested. The pub- 
lisher who was spoken to called together a number of literary experts, who 
pronounced the poem "too local in its nature and its interest obsolete. It 
was without the harmony of the tuneful Pope." It was rejected, but was 
printed shortly afterward by a more farseeing publisher. 

Toward the middle of 1807 news reached the city of the capture of 
Aaron Burr and his trial for treason in Richmond, Va. Much excitement 
was caused, but New York was well represented at the trial, which resulted 
in his acquittal because of the difficulty of the prosecution in proving overt 
acts. Burr came to New York and lay concealed in the houses of friends 
until, under an assumed name and with money borrowed for his passage, 
he sailed for Europe. 

War's alarums resounded through the country at the end of 1807, when 
Congress passed a bill prohibiting American vessels from sailing for foreign 
ports, and all foreign vessels from taking out cargoes. All coasting vessels 



2o6 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

were required to give bonds to land their cargoes in the United States. Im- 
portant measures were adopted for the defense of the city. The old Potter's 
Field, at the junction of the Bloomingdale and Post roads (Madison 
Square), was ceded to the national government, which erected an arsenal 
upon it; also ground "under water 400 feet," on which the Castle Garden, 
off the Battery, was soon after erected. The batteries at the foot of Hubert 
street and Fort Gansevoort were also established. The city suffered severely 
from the embargo. The trade of the whole world was interdicted. Ware- 
houses were in many instances closed and ships lay idly at anchor. The 
farmer was badly affected, as he had no market for his produce, and to sell 
meant a great reduction in price. Measures were being taken by the na- 
tional government to remedy the condition of affairs, but without effect, 
and so it continued until 1809, when Jefferson consented to a compromise, 
and non-intercourse was substituted for embargo, all nations except France 
and Great Britain being relieved from the arbitrary provisions of the former 
act. Business began to revive. 

Marinus Willett was Mayor in 1807, and during his term many im- 
provements were inaugurated. One of these, and the most important, was 
the adoption of a plan of the future city, to which we owe the parallel 
streets and broad avenues of the upper part of the island, in contrast to the 
crooked lanes of the downtown locality. The whole island to Kingsbridge 
was laid out and surveyed by commissioners appointed by the legislature, 
Gouverneur Morris, De Witt Clinton and others. The streets, beginning 
with the first on the east side of the Bowery, above Houston street, were 
numbered upward to the extreme end of the island. Twelve avenues inter- 
sected these, and were numbered westward from First avenue, the continu- 
ation of Allen street, to Twelfth avenue (there is now a Thirteenth ave- 
nue), on the shores of the North River. When avenues were afterward 
laid out to the eastward of the former the letters of the alphabet were used 
to designate them. Public parks for the adornment of the city were made 
from the squares and triangles which were formed by the junction of the 
thoroughfares. Everything was done to make every inch of the island 
habitable. 

Hampering these improvements were the war threats of England and 
France. On March 1, 1809, the embargo, as was mentioned before, was 
removed by Congress, and a system of non-intercourse was substituted. In 
August non-intercourse with England was again proclaimed, while in the 
following March commercial intercourse was renewed with the French 
nation. England continued her aggressions, and stationed ships of war 
before the American ports, to intercept the outward bound vessels and take 
possession of them as lawful prizes. As no satisfaction was to be obtained 
from the British government. Congress resolved to bring matters to a 
head, and on May 19 the President proclaimed war against Great Britain. 
This declaration caused the city to retrograde for a time in population and 
wealth. The history of the war is well known to every reader. 

When tranquillity was restored the population of the city, according 
to the census taken in 1814, was over 92,000, including nearly 1,000 negro 
slaves. The hum of industry began to be heard on every side, and New 
York commerce girded herself for peaceful battle with other countries. The 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 



207 



war had interrupted public improvements, but with the ratification of the 
treaty of peace on February 17, 1815, leading citizens began to urge the 
city forward on her career of prosperity. The 19th of the month was set 
apart for thanksgiving by the various churches, and on the 22d "a brilliant 
and costly display of fireworks took place, when the City Hall and all in- 
habited dwellings" were illuminated. Shortly after a "superb ball" was 
given in honor of the joyful peace. And so the old city started out to re- 
habilitate herself and become again powerful. 

The following year was memorable among commercial men for the 
enormous importation of merchandise of every description from Europe. 
Through it a new impulse was given to business. It is also memorable as 
the year in which the commissioners of the Erie Canal were appointed and 
as the year in which was adopted the immortal recommendation of Gover- 
nor Tompkins — that slavery should cease forever in the State of New York 
on July 4, 1827. 




CHAPTER XLII. 



(1817-1825.) 



First Line of Packet Ships Established— Arrival of the Great Eastern — 
Body of General Montgomery Transferred — Reception to Lafayette 
— Organization of First Savings Bank. 

Two events of importance were evolved in 1817. One may be said to 
have been foreshadowed from the start of the city by the fact that ample 
channels of communication with the interior by water existed, and the 
other to have been the result of a demand for the extension of a great busi- 
ness already soundly established. The first of these events was the forming 
by Isaac Wright & Son, Francis Thompson, Benjamin Marshall and Jere- 
miah Thompson of the first regular line of packet ships to Liverpool, known 
as the "Black Ball Line," which sailed regularly on the first day of every 
month throughout the year. They were named the Pacific, the Amity, the 
William Thompson and the James Cropper, and were vessels of between 
400 and 500 tons — large ships as ships went in those days. Four years 
later a second line, the Red Star, was established by Byrnes, Trimble & Co., 
with four ships, the Manhattan, the Hercules, the Panthea and the Meteor, 
which sailed on the 24th of each month. The business of the country was 
in an unusually flourishing condition at this time, and the competitive 
instinct forced the Black Ball Line to add four more ships, to sail on the 
16th of each month. A little later the Swallow Tail Line was established by 
Messrs. Fish, Grinnell & Co. and Thaddeus Phelps & Co. Four ships were 
in this service, sailing on the 8th of each month. Thus, communication 
was established between New York and Liverpool by a fleet of sixteen 
vessels, making from each end of the line weekly departures the year 
round. 

The honor of first demonstrating the feasibility of navigating the 
ocean by steam belongs to this country, as in 1819 the Savannah, of .300 
tons, which had been built the previous year in one of New York City's 
shipyards, sailed from here to the city in Georgia for v/hich she was named. 
Two months later, on May 26, she left Savannah direct for Liverpool, 
accomplishing the trip in twentj-'-two days. The sensation she created 
extended into court circles, and it w^as suspected that her errand was to 
rescue Napoleon from St. Helena. From Liverpool she M'^ent to Copen- 
hagen, and thence to St. Petersburg and to Norway. She returned to Savan- 
nah in twenty-five days. It was not until April 23, 1838, that the first 
English steamship — if she may be so called, as she was a sailing vessel 
fitted up as a steamer — arrived at Jones's Wharf, Pier 14, East River. She 
was named the Sirius, and sailed from Liverpool, bringing over forty-four 

208 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 209 

passengers. Her trip from Cork, at which point she had touched, was made 
in fourteen days. Three days after her arrival the Great Western, the 
first English steamship distinctly built as such, and intended for the 
American service, arrived in the Lower Bay. She had sailed from Bristol 
on April 8, and made the trip in eighteen days. Her passenger list was 
seven persons. After docking at Pike Slip, she was opened for inspection to 
the public. It was a great day for the citizens, and the newspapers the 
following morning had extended accounts of the event. It was the begin- 
ning of permanent ocean steam navigation. The Collins and Cunard lines 
soon followed, in 1841, and in less than twenty years there were fifteen 
lines of steamships between the two continents, forty-six ships in all, 
thirty-seven of which ran out of this harbor. The Collins Line met with 
misfortune, two of its steamers being lost at sea, in one of which, the 
Arctic, the family of the owner and nearly every one on board perished. 
In 1858 it was discontinued. 

The second event of importance in 1817 was the solidifying into a 
legislative act of the whole plan of the Erie Canal on April 17. This 
project was an evolution. Under the presidency of General Philip Schuyler, 
the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was incorporated in 1792, 
for the purpose of opening a communication by canal to Seneca Lake and 
Lake Ontario and of improving the Mohawk River. Later, at the suggestion 
of Gouverneur Morris, a plan grander in scope was considered — the opening 
of a canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The project was brought 
before the Assembly in 1808 by Joshua Forman, and an appropriation was 
granted for a preliminary survey, which was made by James Geddis. The 
matter was dropped for a year, but was revived in March, 1810, Senator 
De Witt Clinton becoming associated with it and remaining its most effi- 
cient promoter until the end. The war with England and the consequent 
disorder in the finances of the country prevented the prosecution of the work 
for several years. On April 17, 1817, funds were provided for its construc- 
tion, and nearly three months later ground was broken at Rome, N. Y., on 
the middle section. The canal was opened for traffic in little more than eight 
years. 

A great celebration took place along the line of the canal between the 
day of the letting in of the waters of Lake Erie, on October 26, 1825, and 
the day when Governor Clinton, from the deck of the Seneca Chief, poured 
from one of two elegant kegs, painted green, with gilded hoops, fresh water 
brought from Lake Erie into the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean, thus 
typifying the joining of the inland and the outland seas, on November 4. 
An extended account of this celebration is given in nearly all histories, and 
is known to all readers. Shortly after the event the corporation of New 
York prepared and sent to Buffalo a superb keg, bearing the arms of the 
city, over which were the words "Neptune's Return to Pan," and containing 
"water of the Atlantic." 

An interesting orcurrence in 1817 was the seizure by the high con- 
stable of the city of a quantity of gunpowder belonging to the United 
States which was being carted through the streets unguarded and im- 
properly packed. The government sued for its return and recovered, but 
the corporation appealed to the United States Supreme Court, and its right 



210 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

to seize was sustained. In this year also "the Mayor made a report of the 
income and estate belonging to Captain Randall's legacy, and called the 
Sailor's Snug Harbor, as follows: Rents of ninety-five lots and five houses, 
$3,523.06; interest on stock holdings, $1,660.92; dividends on bank, fire 
and insurance company stock, $1,476. Total, $6,659.92." Those who know 
may compare this with to-day's income, and find much that is interesting. 
Another record is the division of the city into ten wards and the change 
of the name of St. George street to Franklin Square. Likewise, the giving 
of the streets east of the Bowery, from First to Sixth, the names of Chrystie, 
Forsyth, Eldridge, Allen and Ludlow, after the names of "military and 
naval heroes of the late war." 

On July 11, 1818, the remains of General Richard Montgomery, the 
hero of Quebec, were transferred from their Canadian resting place to the 
city, and deposited with military honors beneath the mural monument in 
the front of St. Paul's Chapel, which had been erected to his memory in 
1776 by order of the Continental Congress. ^ 

Cadwallader D. Colden was appointed Mayor this year. "He was indus- 
triously active in the interests of humanity and viewed men and things 
from a philosophical standpoint." Through him the Society for the Preven- 
tion of Pauperism was established in 1818, and with his aid the Asylum for 
the Insane was begun at Manhattanville. This institution was later an 
appendage to and under the government of the managers of the New York 
Hospital, and received an endowment from the State of $10,000 a year for 
forty-four years. The report of the Mayor in November, 1819, regarding 
the foreign emigration to the city startle4 the people. He said that during 
the preceding twenty months 18,930 foreigners had arrived in the city 
and been reported at his office. They were not all of the desirable class. 
Many of them were of the lowest and most ignorant, who paid no particular 
attention to laws of any kind, and were satisfied to live in sheds, cellars or 
rookeries. The patience of the citizens was sorely tried for a time. 

From No. 27 Cherry street, in this city, in April, 1818, was forwarded 
to Washington the first flag in which the stripes were not correspondingly 
increased with incoming States. It was made by the wife of Captain 
Samuel C. Reid, the hero of Fayal. The history of its making is interesting. 
As originally instituted by Congress, June 14, 1777, the flag bore thirteen 
stars and thirteen stripes. Pursuant to an act of the same body in 1794, 
with the admission of each new State a star and a stripe were to be added 
to the flag. The increase in States necessarily lessened the width of the 
stripes and correspondingly decreased the historical significance of the flag. 
A new design was proposed by the New York Representative in the House, 
Peter H. Wendover, who had called attention to the fact that the flag of 
the United States did not represent all the States, and moved for its altera- 
tion. The design which combined the glory of the past with the progress 
of the present — the thirteen stripes as a memento of the original Union, 
alternate red and white, and a new star, white on a blue field, added when- 
ever a new State was admitted, to indicate the nation's growth — was the 
work of Captain Reid at the suggestion of Wendover, who succeeded in 
having it adopted by Congress on April 4, to be effective from and after 
July 4, 1818. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 211 

"A clash between the civil and military power in the city was avertea 
this year by the President of the United States." Major General Winfield 
Scott, in command of the military district in which the city was, with 
headquarters at Castle Clinton (the circular stone fort which stood in front 
of the Battery), attempted to erect two small offices on the Battery, one on 
each side, leading to the bridge, in violation of the rights of the city and 
of the spirit of the grant made to the government. The citizens were 
aroused, and the Mayor called the attention of the general to the fact that 
he was violating their rights. Scott was obdurate and refused to be criti- 
cised. An appeal was made to the President, and the work was ordered 
discontinued. A sale of lots belonging to the city, in the vicinity of 
Leonard and Worth streets, brought $25,325 — an average of $900 a lot — 
and "Mr. John Kenrich offered to the Corporation to plough and harrow 
a channel on the bar, outside of Sandy Hook, ten rods wide and four 
fathoms deep, for the sum of $100,000 — which was not accepted." An- 
other sale of fourteen corporation lots, "at the New Albany Basin, in 
Greenwich street," brought $47,800. 

In 1819 the first Savings Bank was organized, under the auspices of 
Thomas Eddy, Dr. John Griscom, John Pintard and others, and opened in 
the basement of the New York Institution, in Chambers street. It was 
afterward located in Bleecker street, William Bayard being its first presi- 
dent. 

"January 21. Sale of lots, at auction, between Dey and Fulton streets 
and Washington and West streets, belonging to the Corporation and for- 
merly bought of Richard Varick: No. 1-7, on Dey street, bought by Leonard 
Kip, Philip Brasher, Philip Hone, W. H. Ireland and William Howard, at 
an average of $4,000 a lot. No. 8-13, on West street, bought by John 
Suydam, John Van Bussum, George Lorillard and Isaac Conklin, the first 
five at about the same average, the sixth bringing $11,000. No. 14-21, on 
Fulton street, by Philip Hone, Joseph Newton, Charles Dennison, Abraham 
Valentine, Peter Embury, Garrit Storm and Philip Brasher, at an average 
of $7,000 a lot." 

On February 19 General Jackson arrived in the city. An extra meet- 
ing of the Common Council was called, at which the freedom of the city 
and a gold snuffbox were voted to him, and he was requested to sit for a 
full length portrait, to be painted for the gallery. A ball was given in his 
honor at the City Hotel. The Mariners' Church was built in Roosevelt 
street, the Dutch Church in Market street, and the Friends' Meeting House 
in Hester street later in the year. 

On September 13 the yellow fever broke out at Old Slip, its first 
appearance since 1805. Twenty-three deaths occurred. 

The year 1820 was memorable to the citizens for a few things. The 
burning of the old Park Theatre occurred on May 25, and so rapid was 
the conflagration that not an article of wardrobe or scenery was saved. 
The New York Infirmary, for curing diseases of the eye, was founded this 
year. "At a meeting of citizens at the City Hall to take measures to relieve 
the sufferers by the late dreadful fire at Savannah, the Corporation was 
appealed to, but declined making any appropriation from the city treasury, 
for want of power. A committee was appointed and $12,000 was collected 



212 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

and sent to the Mayor of Savannah, who, taking offence at a part of the 
resolution voted in New York to be sent, returned the whole amount in 
disgust. It was refunded to the subscribers." 

The salaries of the city officers were reduced this year 16 per cent., 
the Mayor's from $7,000 to $5,500, and the first balloon ascei^sion ever 
made in America took place from Vauxhall. M. Guille was the balloonist. 

For the first time since 1780 the Hudson River and the harbor were 
entirely closed by ice in January, 1821. "The citizens crossed in great 
numbers on the ice to Powles Hook and back, and some to Staten Island. 
Comparative measurements of distance were made upon the ice across the 
Narrows and from Cortlandt street to the Jersey shore, and it was ascer- 
tained that each was one mile and a few feet wide. The thermometer 
registered 14 degrees below zero at the coldest, and for three days not 
more than 10 degrees above zero." Later in the year John Randell, Jr., 
reported to the corporation that he had furnished his surveys and maps 
of the island, on which work he had been engaged for ten years; that all 
the avenues and cross streets north of North street and Greenwich Lane 
had been laid out, the total expense to the city being $32,484.98. 

In February the iron railing which three years before had been put 
around that part of the park fronting Chambers street and Broadway was 
ordered to be continued all around the park, and in a pillar of the prin- 
cipal gateway at the southern extremity coins and articles of interest for 
future generations were to be inserted. Dr. Mitchell addressed the people 
when they were deposited. It would be of interest to know where they 
are now. The Court of Common Pleas was established this year, and John 
T. Irvin was appointed first judge. The Mayor's Court was abolished, or, 
rather, he was not required upon the bench, the Recorder afterward presid- 
ing. The former's salary was fixed at $3,000 a year, and his duties v/ere 
defined and altered principally to those of police and finance. On May 28 a 
constitutional convention was held at Albany, at which the Council of Ap- 
pointment was abolished and the appointment of most of the officers was 
given to the people. St. Luke's Church, in Hudson street, and the Presby- 
terian churches in Vandewater, Broome and Christopher streets were built 
this year, and the North River Bank chartered, a bonus of $60,000 being 
paid, on a compromise with the Swartwouts, to assist them in reclaiming the 
Jersey Meadows. Beekman street was ordered opened through Pearl, Water 
and Front streets to the river. 

While the year 18 22 opened auspiciously for the city, with an increase 
of business over the previous year and a brighter outlook for the future, a 
setback was given to it in the summer by the appearance of yellow fever 
in Rector street, near the river. The first case occurred on June 17. By the 
middle of July it had spread with fearful rapidity. Business was suspended 
for the next two months, and the only sounds to be heard were the rumbling 
of hearses and the footsteps of nurses and physicians. High fences shut off 
each infected street or district below the City Hall, stores and dwellings 
were closed and deserted, and the Custom House, Postoffice and all the 
banks, insurance offices and other public places of business were removed 
to the upper part of Broadway and to Greenwich Village. The disease 
utterly desolated the lower portions of the city, and thousands sought pro- 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 213 

tection in flight. The dead numbered nearly four hundred, and it was not 
until early in November that the citizens returned to their homes. Charles 
Mathews, the noted English actor, arrived from England while the pesti- 
lence was at its height. He was greatly agitated, and insisted on finding 
shelter in some remote spot. The managers of the Park Theatre, which 
was rebuilt in 1821, took him to a gardener's cottage on the road to Hack- 
ensack, where he remained until assured of the disappearance of the fever. 
Burials in Trinity church yard were discontinued this year. 

Many churches and institutions were built or founded in 1822, among 
the former being St. Matthew's, in Walker street; the Bowery Presbyterian 
Church, St. Thomas's, in Broadway, corner of Houston street, and the Unl- 
versalist Church, in Prince street. Among the institutions were the Appren- 
tices' Library and the Mercantile Library and the United Domestic Mis- 
sionary Society. 

On January 6, 1823, the Mayor, in accordance with the new constitu- 
tion, was appointed by the Common Council, Stephen Allen being re-elected. 
The celebrated interment law was. passed in the same month, forbidding 
burials south of Canal street, and a "new burial ground was laid out be- 
tween Fortieth and Forty-second streets, on Fourth and Fifth avenues, con- 
taining ten acres and costing $8,449." The Fulton Bank and the New 
York Gaslight Company were incorporated later in the year, the latter 
having granted to it by the corporation the exclusive privilege for thirty 
years of laying castiron gas pipes in the streets south of Grand street. On 
June 16 Castle Clinton was given up as a military post and relinquished to 
the city. 

In the beginning of 1824 news from Liverpool of a great rise in the 
price of cotton reached the city. "Pilot boats and expresses were dis- 
patched to all the Southern cities and ports to purchase the commodity, 
which rose instantly from 15 to 30 cents a pound. Vast sums were lost and 
won, and the speculating mania extended to all kinds of merchandise. A 
strong impulse was given to business for a time. The reaction set in, and 
prices fell below the former standard, prostrating respectable and estab- 
lished houses, and giving the mercantile community a shock from v/hich it 
did not recover for many years." During the year sixteen hundred houses 
were built in the old Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh wards. They were 
mostly two story structures. A correspondingly great increase took place 
in the value of real estate, especially in the northern part of the city. 

The city was honored on Monday, August 16, by the presence of 
General Lafayette, who had arrived on the Cadmus the preceding day, 
and landed on Staten Island, where he stayed at the residence of Daniel D. 
Tompkins, Vice-President of the United States. From the Battery he was 
escorted to the City Hall, where he was welcomed by the corporation and 
congratulated by Mayor Paulding on his safe arrival. "An immense and 
most enthusiastic gathering of the people proclaimed the warmth of its 
affection for the friend of Hamilton, the adopted brother of Washington, 
and the man who had won golden opinions from all ranks and parties by his 
frankness and valor in the American Revolution." Men in all walks of life 
vied with one another to do him honor. After the ceremony he was con- 
ducted to Bunker's Mansion House, the guest of the city. He visited the 



214 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

navy yard, fortifications and public institutions, and on his departure was 
escorted by a large detachment of troops to Kingsbridge, whence he set 
out for his proposed tour through the States. On his return in September a 
fete was given to him at Castle Garden, "which for grandeur, expense and 
entire effect was never before witnessed in this country, six thousand 
persons being assembled in that immense area." The Chamber of Com- 
merce and merchants resolved this year to adopt the new measure of buying 
and selling by the quintal of 100 pounds, instead of 112, as heretofore, be- 
ginning with January 1, 1825. Anthracite coal from Pennsylvania was 
introduced into the city the latter part of the year, but was not universally 
used. 

The year 1825 found a large and mixed population in New York, 
transportation facilities into the heart of the continent and a foreign trade 
diffused over the whole globe. The population numbered 166,000, and was 
straining at the leash in its efforts to achieve more strength and prosperity. 
The Erie Canal, gaspipes, joint stock companies, the opera, the Sunday 
paper, the Merchants' Exchange and marble as a building material all made 
their advent in the great metropolis in the course of this year, and New 
York's evolution was a fact. 




CHAPTER XLIII. 



The City's Musical Life from 1825 to 1872. 



The Garcia Family —"The Woods"— Mrs. Seguin— Madame Borghese— Ha- 
vana Opera Company— Miss Clotilda Barili— Madame Anna Bishop 
—Madame Bosio— Madame Anna Thillon— Madame Al- 
boni— Adelina Patti— Clara Louise Kellogg. 

The meagreness of musical entertainment in this country before 1825 
seems incredible. That New Yorkers then were content with the existing 
condition of the arts, and particularly of music, can only be ex- 
plained by understanding the general absence of money and leisure at 
that period. In 1825 there were brought to New York the Garcia family 
and their associates, an Italian opera company of a total of nearly 
thirty persons, of which the brilliant star was Miss Garcia, who later mar- 
ried a New York wine merchant, Mr. Malibran. To speak the name Mali- 
bran tells the story. About five years after the Garcia troupe, another 
Italian opera company, wih an excellent prima donna named Pedrotti, 
arrived; and by 1834 the American cities, even in those days of sailing 
ships, had grown to be considered a good harvest field for European artists. 
In 1834 (September 9) appeared Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wood. He was a 
first-rate, robust, dramatic English tenor and a fine actor, and she, as Miss 
Paton, and afterward Lady William Lennox, the best operatic artist the 
English stage had records of. The Malibran and Pedrotti troupes had 
brought an exclusively contemporary Italian repertoire from the works of 
Rossini and Bellini. The Woods had not only these, but the best French 
works, translated into English. They brought out "Era Diavolo" and 
kindred operas. Mrs. Wood was then a woman of 35, of impressive, rather 
than handsome mein, with a soprano of beautiful quality, very flexible, 
of wide extent and perfect schooling. Her ability was equal to any opera, 
and in those days vocal development seems to have reached the high-water 
mark that the public have ever since exacted. This lady could sing 
"Norma" or "Semiramide" as thrillingly as "Amina" or "Zerlina." 

"The Woods," as the newspapers chronicled them, remained in this 
country nearly seven years, held the palm against all comers and were 
the standard of excellence for a generation after their departure. In 1830 
Miss Sherriff, Miss Poole, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Giubeeli were here. They 
introduced "Fidelio" in English. Miss Sherriff was the third English 
prima donna of rank in her profession to visit New York. Her acting was 
admirable but her musical capabilities did not equal those of Mrs. Wood, 
and her repertoire was not so extensive. Miss Sherriff brought out for 

215 



2i6 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

the first time Adam's "Postilion." While the men of the company were 
excellent, the contralto, Miss Poole, excited an enthusiasm for her lovely- 
voice and her fascinating delivery that captured some of the honors from 
the prima donna. Miss Poole became subsequently the most renowned con- 
tralto of England. Miss Sherriff soon after returned to England. 

In 1841, while the veteran tenor, Braham, was singing with stentorian 
voice to crowds in the Atlantic cities, his sea songs of the previous cen- 
tury, there entered New York a modest English opera troupe. It was 
in every detail excellent, and was, in its sphere, for ten years the most 
popular and worthy musical organization of the Union. It introduced 
to the public many new works in admirable English adaptations. 

March 29 Mrs. Seguin made her first appearance with her husband 
(bass) and Mr. Manners (tenor) in a version of "Zampa" that delighted 
the public. Mrs. Seguin was born in London, the daughter of a physician. 
She was an excellent and well-schooled soprano, an acceptable actress and 
sang charmingly every part she essayed. She was the aunt of Parepa Rosa, 
who appeared twenty-five years later. Mr. Seguin was a fit partner, an 
excellent actor and impressive singer. As an actor his work in "Fra 
Diavolo" and the "Bohemian Girl," which opera the Seguins introduced, 
has never been surpassed. They produced "Don Pasquale" in English in 
1846, the tenor being Mr. Frazer. 

In these days New York needed an Italian opera house, and a small 
auditorum called "Palmo's" was opened February 3, 1844. Mme. Borghece 
was the prima donna. The rest of the company were not notable except 
Mme. Pico, the contralto, who became a pet of the public and held that 
position for several years. Borghese was young and handsome, but her 
vocal work was unequal, and the New York public had the voices of Mali- 
bran, Pedrotti and Wood in their memories for purposes of comparison, and, 
having become accustomed to the greatest, the career of the Palmo house 
became checkered. On November 25, 184 4, the "Lucrezia Borgia" of Doni- 
zetti was first heard at Palmo's. 

The years after 1844 seem to have been lean, musically, in this city. 
In 1847 there v/as a shaking up. On April 15, the Havana Opera Company 
played for two nights. This organization grew out of a unique civic bar- 
gain worthy of repetition. The town authorities of Havana conceded to 
one Tacon or Marti the monopoly of the fish markets of that Catholic city, 
on condition that he provide the town with the best Italian opera at 
moderate prices. The time favored the project, for Europe was too busy 
singing the "Marseillaise" to listen to other strains. There were thus 
gathered together the best artists of the world, combining a company of 
seventy-two, including Arditi as first violin and leader and Bottisini, the 
first living contra-bass player. Other members of the orchestra were 
chosen players, and New Yorkers heard for the first time exactly what the 
composer of an opera had written. The principal singers had the best 
European reputations. Except the great quartet of Her Majesty's, Grisi, 
Rubini, Tambourini and Lablache and Duprez of Paris, the Havana com- 
pany held the cream of the opera stage. Its first work was "I^rnani." The 
singers were Perelli, Vita, Novelli, Candi and Madame Tedesco. Perelli 
was only a fair actor, but had a beautiful tenor voice and was a perfect 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 217 

singer; he was, besides, a composer. The rest of the men were good and 
Tedesco was the first rank. His brief appearance (two nights) did not 
introduce the leading attractions. These were heard June 9, 184 7, when a 
season began with Verdi's "I Due Foscari," and the incomparable barytone 
Badiali made his debut. He was considered the peer of Tamburini, who 
never strayed from Paris or London and was the admired of the Queen. 
Badiali was a majestic personality, had a voice of power, sweetness, flexi- 
bility, perfect culture, and (as can be permittedly said in French) tears. 
This season, ending July 8, one month, gave Pacini's "Saffo," "Norma," 
"Sonnambula" and a revival of "Mose in Egitto." 

There was an interesting reopening on January 4, 1847, in Palmo's 
Opera House, under the management of Sanguirico (an admirable buffo) 
and Patti (a trustworthy tenor and father of the immortal Adelina). It 
was for the appearance of Miss Clotilda Carili, a beautiful girl and good 
singer. She was the daughter of Madame Patti toy a previous marriage. 
This young lady afterward married into a fashionable and wealthy New 
York family and became daughter-in-law of Colonel Thorne. The opera was 
"Linda" and the tenor Benedetti, a remarkably attractive artist, only ex- 
celled then and for a generation by Salvi and Bettini. Beneventano for 
this occasion was the barytone. His voice was robust, but the vocal finish 
was absent, and he soon lost his popularity. 

About this time Castle Garden grew to be acceptable for summer per- 
formances, and on August 18, 1847, the Havana Opera Company revisited 
New York and performed there. They gave "Ernani," "Norma" and "Son- 
nambula," the tickets being 50 cents. 

On the 4th of August, 1847, a great English artist made her debut at 
the Park Theatre, Madame Anna Bishop. She sang "Linda di Chamounix" 
in English, with an adequate support and with Bochsa, the composer, and 
greatest living virtuoso on the harp, as her conductor. Madame Bishop Vv-as 
then at her best and should then be judged, not as when in more recent 
years, as an old lady, she lagged upon the stage. Her voice was always 
what may be described as veiled. Yet that is all that could be said to its 
disadvantage. It was a high soprano, musical, ample, flexible to the last 
degree, and cultivated to its widest possibilities. As an artist she was most 
satisfying. 

On November 22, 1847, undoubtedly a musical year, the Astor Place 
Opera House, just built, opened under the management of Sanguirico and 
Patti. The soprano who was the mainstay of the company was named 
Truffe. She was a young and beautiful woman whose voice easily filled 
that moderate-sized auditorium. Yet, while a correct and entertaining 
singer, she had little of the authority or magnetism that seems essential to 
awaken enthusiasm and hold the public. 

On December 1, 1847, Bellini's "Beatrice di Tenda," an inferior work, 
however, was given with the sisters Clotilda Barili and Amalia Patti. Soon 
after, that was December 8, a Madame Biscaccianti, who was a Miss Osti- 
nelli, of Boston, made her debut here, but none seemed to have saved the 
day or brought fortune to the new house. However, on January 28, 1848, 
Madame Barili-Patti appeared in "Romeo" (another of the lesser works of 
Bellini), but the lady, although a regulation artist of an earlier day. failed 



2i8 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

to make the season successful. Her youngest daughter, Adelina, was four 
years old. In 1848 the business of the world began to revive. On March 11 
the renowned artists, Steffanone, the prima donna, and Marini, the bass, only 
second to Lablache, opened in "Norma" with the Havana Opera Company, 
and on March 18 the beautiful Madame Bosio appeared. Steffanone was a 
grand and ponderous artist of the highest rank, and while Bosio was equal 
to all that Steffanone did, she also would exalt the light or comic characters 
like Zerlina, Amina, Rosina and the rest to the leading place. Her voice 
was most beautiful, her acting piquant and, when needed, noble. Her place 
was soon first in the hearts of the public, a place which she enjoyed until her 
lamented death, ten years later, at the age of 35. Salvi now debuted 
in "La Favorita." As a tenor he was then as much of a revelation as Caruso 
is to-day. With a voice of tenor quality, pure, smooth, even, highly musical, 
used with the best intelligence and cultivation imaginable, he carried his 
audiences with him. The quintet of Bosio (or Steffanone), Badiali, Salvi, 
Marini and the contralto Nantie Didiee, with an orchestra of Arditi's, in 
an opera house of normal dimensions, was a musical happening on which 
the enthusiasm of memory always lingers. 

On the 11th of September, 1850, Jenny Lind gave her first concert 
at Castle Garden. A full history of the event has been told in Chapter XIX. 

An unequal but very popular artist appeared November 4, 1850, in 
Teresa Parodi. Her Norma had merit, but not so much beyond that of the 
several prima donne then before the public as to cause marked enthusiasm. 
Jenny Lind had sung "Casta Diva," at her own concerts, and the great 
Norma in her entirety was to come with Grisi. 

On October 8, 1850, the Astor Place Opera House had reopened with a 
most valuable prima donna, Madame Rose de Vries, and her husband, a 
painstaking tenor. All of her impersonations were good, beginning with 
the exacting and popular Norma and reaching the lightest roles. 

On the 4th of December Bettini appeared for the first time as Edgardo, 
and immediately became a prime favorite, sharing the public enthusiasm 
with Salvi. These fine artists seem to have occupied public attention for 
many months. 

On the 18th of September, 1851, there appeared at Niblo's Garden 
Theatre an admirable prima donna of lighter opera — Madame Anna 
Thillon. She was of English birth and married to a French musician. 
Her brilliant career had begun in Paris. She was young, pretty, naive and 
piquant as an actress, and an excellent musician, with a flexible and culti-» 
vated voice of moderate power. She began with Auber's "Crown Dia- 
monds" and was soon most popular. 

On December 7, 1852, after a long season of no opera to speak of, the 
great Madame Alboni appeared. There are a few matters — not arithmetical 
— upon which there are no differences of opinion. One of these is the rank 
of primacy of this wonderful contralto. She was hugely fat to be tol- 
erated in operatic costume. She had an intelligent face, and when she 
opened her mouth there issued a voice that may be described as smooth as 
oil, sweet as sugar, flexible as a clarinet, perfect as to intonation, cultivated 
to the utmost possibilities of a human organ and musical as is rarely heard. 
Then she used, as regards phrasing, declamation and all the refinements 



CRADLE DAYS OP NEW YORK. 219 

of the art of the singer, every art that the most exacting criticism could 
demand. The florid, difficult, but singable music of Rossini seemed to have 
been written expressly for her most ravishing and exact voice and perfect 
method. The art of Alboni has never been overestimated. It stands alone. 
On September 27, 1852, another great artist first appeared in concerts. 
This was Madame Henrietta Sontag. A better idea of this great artist, of 
this era of artists, can be had to-day by comparing her to Madame Sem- 
brich. This great lady, for she shone in society as on the stage, began her 
operatic season January 10, 1853, in "La Figlia del Reggimento" of Doni- 
zetti. The tenor was Pozzolini, an excellent singer and attractive man, and 
the barytone the popular Badiali. The verdict was that never before had 
such delightful impersonations been given as Sontag's. A comic actress, 
amuEing and arch, she could be also an impressive and most pathetic Norma. 
After her season in New York her company went to Mexico, where she died 
the next year at the age of 49. Sontag was married to the Count Rossi, who 
had been the Italian minister to Russia. She was, like Lind and Alboni, an 
ornament of brilliancy for the traditions of her profession. June 30, 1854, 
there appeared at Castle Garden a barytone named Graziani. His support 
was inferior and his advent and departure were unnoticed. Yet his rank 
was of the highest, and later he was a popular favorite, if not an idol, of 
London. 

September 4, 1854, Castle Garden was crowded to hear the first notes of 
Grisi and Mario. Susini (bass) and Mme. Amalia Patti-Strakosch were of 
the company. Grisi had been a long time getting to his country. Super- 
stitious of the water and being always in demand in England and France it 
was only a not-to-be-refused sum that lured her to New York at the age 
of 43. She was four years older than her husband, and was a beautiful, 
statuesque woman, the tragedy queen, or Siddons, of the lyric stage. Mario 
was one of the handsomest men "on the boards," and the owner of a voice 
which the word delicious alone describes. Susini was a noble bass, but 
Madame Strakosch shared little of the wonderful family gifts of the Pattis. 
Of course Grisi played "Puritani," which had been written for her, and 
"Norma." Since Pesta, for whom "Norma" was written, all Normas had to 
bear comparison with Grisi. The weather shortly grew cool and the company 
was transferred to the Academy of Music, Fourteenth street and Irving 
place, which was finished October 2, 1854. Grisi's voice was now at its best, 
yet needed a little husbanding. Its beauty, breadth, majesty and charm de- 
manded no musical education to appreciate. Mario differed from all tenors 
in vocal refinement, distinction and sheer beauty. His style was noble if not 
so robust as Salvi's, but a quality of voice and a delivery more divine than 
Mario's are not conceivable. When he returned to this country many years 
after, the lost voice with which he sought to recover his lost fortunes, had 
the piteousness of the wind wailing through broken harp strings. October 
9, 1854, was the first appearance of the Pyne-Harrison troupe. Louisa 
Pyne caught the public heart from the initial performance — a pretty, 
bright, pure looking blonde, an excellent actress with a soprano of excep- 
tional beauty and the highest cultivation, a prima donna of the very first 
rank, although singing in English. Some one asked Grisi about her own 
"Sonnambula," that growing embonpoint was making less frequent and less 



220 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

illusive. She said, "Go hear Louisa Pyne. She is la Sonnambula!" Mr. 
Harrison had been a very successful tenor, but his voice was worn. Their 
success was complete. They played 125 times. 

March 12, 1855, heard the debut of Brignoli, who became for so many 
years the pet of the public. No stage experience or teaching could have 
made of him an even passable actor; but the public cared alone for his 
voice, which, in quality, was the counterpart of Giuglini's, who with Titiens 
was some years later the favorite of London. Brignoli's voice was a pure 
tenor, even and beautiful, but the same natural, unplastic disqualification 
for acting retarded his progress as a vocal artist. Nevertheless, the public 
cherished him as its favorite. Salvi's voice was going; Bettini had dis- 
appeared; therefore why not? On May 2, 1855, the "Trovatore" was first 
heard. Interpreted by Steffanone, Vestrale — the contralto — Brignoli and 
Amodio, it seized the public once for all. Vestrale was tall, majestic, with 
a powerful voice and good schooling for the florid male parts of the Italian 
operas. She became a favorite, and for her height, figure, authority and 
heavy contralto voice was awarded the sobriquet of the Majestic Vestrale. 
Amodio might be compared to Madame Alboni for excessive fat, and for the 
great sweetness it seemed to confer upon his voice. It was a barytone — 
fresh, young, high, even, powerful and melodious. His success continued 
many seasons at the Academy of Music. On May 8 of this year a most 
valuable artist came to succeed Steffanone. It was Madame La Grange. This 
lady did admirably every task she attempted, and although her voice had 
hardly the beauty of Bosio's or Sontag's, for it always showed the tremolo, 
yet her certainty as an artist was never at fault. She has left a delightful 
memory for thousands. On April 13, 1857, Madame Gazzaniga appeared, and 
"Traviata" was first heard. This lady's earnestness atoned for what might 
to-day be passed over for vocal shortcomings. Yet she never sang out of 
tune or phrased unintelligently. Her Traviata was, all the same, a delight- 
ful performance, and the last act has been rarely so pathetically delivered. 

On November 2, 1857, came Madame D'Angri, a Greek lady, a contralto 
who rivalled the peerless Alboni. Her voice had not quite the beauty of 
Alboni's. It was more reedy, a quality frequent in contraltos, but in the 
matter of vocal method there was no difference discoverable and her ad- 
vantage as an actress was incomparable. These names filled the musical 
world till October 20, IS 58, when a pretty, petite prima donna appeared 
named Signorina Piccolomini. She was a Roman, and was said to be of 
the historical family of that name, and a niece of the living cardinal. 
These were then greater aids to popularity and social success than now. 
Nevertheless Piccolomini became popular, although with an incomplete 
equipment of some of the essentials for a prima donna. She sang for seven 
months in this city. 

On September 14, 1858, Madame Pauline Caulson, late of New Orleans, 
made her first appearance — a prima donna of perfect attainments, an 
admirable voice and a lady of much distinction. Her repertoire was exten- 
sive, and through her was brought out "I Vespri Siciliani" of Verdi on No- 
vember 7, 18 59, in which were included Brignoli and the excellent bass 
Junca. 

On November 24, 1859, Adelina Patti, at the age of 16, appeared first. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 221 

She sang Lucia, all its vocal difficulties melting into air under her phenom- 
enal faculties. An amateur between the acts said, "She is going to be the 
greatest artist in the world." His hearer replied: "Going to be? She is!" 
On December 3 she sang Amina, in "Sonnambula," and on February 6, 1860, 
Elvira, in "Puritani." She followed with Rosina, in the "Barber," and 
''Martha." This wonderful singer was born February 16, 1843, In Spain, 
and was brought to New York a baby in arms. Her name is a synonym for 
the highest achievements in the art of singing. Her brother-in-law, Maurice 
Strakosch, was one of her teachers. It is said that while hearing her sing 
Aida for the fortieth time he had taken notes during the performance, to 
aid his pupil in her untiring toil after perfection. 

The Civil War now broke out and musical matters were silenced in 
degree. Nevertheless, a charming young prima donna of New York birth 
appeared at the Academy of Music and held the first place for many years 
with the public, creating many characters and giving delight in all she 
attempted. This was Clara Louise Kellogg. 

There was now an interregnum of new operas. It is true the war was 
ended when the great Christine Nilsson appeared and introduced Ambroise 
Thomas's "Mignon" and the very fine scene of Ophelia by the same com- 
poser, but the Italian primate Verdi was silent and would not be heard 
from till 1872 with "Aida." All the best old Italian works had been listened 
to till known by heart. It was then that the perseverance for Wagner met 
its reward. The public had been slowly reached. The new generation could 
accept his musical forms, and so it was that with the war of 1861-65 there 
had seemed to come with the other vast changes, material and physical, the 
appreciation of Wagner that has moved, if not stirred up, the musical world 
to its depths, perhaps accomplished a revolution, which, unlike those musi- 
cal mutations of past centuries, has done its work without bloodshed or 
bitterness, 




CHAPTER XnV. 



History of Central Park. 



Originally Shanties and Bone-Boiling Establishments — Land Cost $6,348,- 

959.90 — Site of State Arsenal — Used by Tweed for Political Power 

— Introduction of European Sparrows — Analysis of the Soil. 

In the year 1S49 a letter was written from London by Mr. Downing, 
addressed to the "Horticulturist," a periodical of that date. This letter 
attracted considerable attention. The importance of parks in the growing 
city of New York was the main subject. 

Fernando Wood became a strong advocate of the necessity of a park to 
be located in upper New York. He was nominated for Mayor in 1850. He 
made the necessity for a park a part of his campaign issue. He was defeated 
by Mr. Kingsland, who took office January, 1851. May 5 of the same year 
Mayor Kingsland was convinced of the importance of a park, and wrote a 
letter to the Common Council urging the selection of a site. He had not 
advocated a park up to this time, the credit being due to Mr. Wood. The 
Common Council appointed a committee on lands and places, which selected 
Jones Wood, a natural piece of woodland situated on the East River above 
Sixtieth street. It was necessary for the Legislature to take action before 
anything could be done, which it did on July 11, 1851, approving of the 
selection of Jones Wood for a park. Mr. Wood was opposed to the selection 
of Jones Wood, as not being properly located, and advocated the selection 
of a piece of land above Fifty-ninth street. The Common Council became 
convinced of its mistake and appointed another committee August 5, 1851, 
who chose the present site of Central Park, from Fifty-ninth street to One 
Hundred and Sixth street, from Fifth avenue to Eighth avenue, 776 acres. 
The extension to One Hundred and Tenth street was obtained afterward. 

July 23, 1853, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the purchase 
of the land now occupied by Central Park. 

The act creating the park of Jones Wood was repealed November 17, 
1853, through the efforts of Mr. Wood. Five commissioners were appointed 
by the Supreme Court to appraise the land and purchase the same, under 
the act of July 3, 1853. They finished their work during the summer of 
1855 — Washingon Irving serving as one of the Commissioners. 

Fernando Wood was again nominated for Mayor and was elected and 
sworn in January 1, 1855. At the time of the commencement of the work on 
plans that had been approved for Central Park, the municipal government 
became involved in legal complications by reason of a defective charter, 
which was adjusted by an appeal to the Supreme Court. On May 19, 1856, 
the Common Council passed an ordinance creating the Mayor and Street 
Commissioner and a member of the Park Commission. 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 223 

The land now constituting Central Park was occupied by shanties, bone- 
boiling establishments, piggeries and pools of offensive stagnant water 
which rendered the neighborhood anything but park-like. The first full 
year's report of the men who were given the work of turning this ground 
into a park contains the following description of its condition: 

"It was already a straggling suburb, when purchased by the city, 
and a suburb more filthy, squalid and disgusting can hardly be imagined. 
A considerable number of inhabitants were engaged in occupations which 
are nuisances in the eyes of the law and forbidden to be carried on so near 
the city. They were accordingly followed at night in wretched hovels half 
hidden among the rocks. 

"During the autumn of 1857, 300 dwellings were removed or demol- 
ished by the commissioners, together with several factories and numerous 
'swill milk and hog feeding establishments.' Ten thousand loads of stone 
were also taken off the land and used to build a rough inclosing wall." 

This description helps one to appreciate the vast amount of work and 
artistic planning which has been necessary to bring the park to its present 
state of beauty and attractiveness, and it is interesting to see how fully the 
prophecy of a park commissioner, who wrote in 1868, has been fulfilled: 

"But we who are in the middle of life," he says, "can never know all 
its beauty. That is reserved for those for whom we have planted these 
shrubs and trees, and spread these level lawns. These trees will arch 
over many happy generations, and thousands who are not yet born will 
enjoy the sweet green of the grass; and it will ever habitually serve to keep 
the memory of its founders green." 

The central site was finally selected, despite its unpromising topog- 
raphy, in preference to the one first proposed at Sixty-sixth street on the 
East River — the Jones's Wood site — because it was central and spacious. It 
was also thought that the great expense of turning it into building lots — 
the extensive filling of low, swampy ground, and blasting away of ledges — 
would enable the city to purchase the land at a low figure. Including a 
number of acres of water surface, comprising the two reservoirs belonging 
to the Water Department, the cost was about $7,500 an acre. The total 
acreage, including the subsequent extension to 110th street, was 843, and 
the price paid $6,348,959.90. 

There has been spent in bringing the park to its present condition 
somewhere between $30,000,000 and $35,000,000. 

The special committee appointed by the* Board of Aldermen to select 
the most desirable park site pronounced emphatically in favor of "the 
Central Park," stating their opinion that "it could be made to compare 
favorably with the most celebrated public grounds of the chief cities of 
Europe, not excepting Hyde Park of London, the Champs Elys^es of Paris, 
the Prater of Vienna, the Casclne of Florence, the Corso of Rome, the 
Prado of Madrid, or even on the American continent with the spacious 
plazas of Havana or the lovely botanical gardens of Rio de Janeiro. 

It was freely predicted by the opponents of the park that it would 
prove a white elephant on the hands of the city; that it could never be 
made into a decent-looking park, and was an unnecessary extravagance 
which the city did not need and could not afford. 



224 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

The largest settlement of the park seems to have been along the Eighth 
avenue side. Mount St. Vincent was included within the park borders, situ- 
ated just west of Fifth avenue at 105th street, on the old Boston post road, 
which ran diagonally through the park. The land and buildings forming 
the State Arsenal were subsequently purchased by the city and added to the 
park in 1867, the price paid being $275,000. 

Owing to the lack of funds no work was done in improving the land 
until 1857. In April of this year the legislature authorized the issuance 
of bonds, and in the following June a tentative beginning was made on the 
park. Preliminary surveys had been carried out by Egbert L. Viele, the 
first engineer to the commissioners, but they soon decided that it would be 
desirable to offer a series of prizes to outside architects for designs for the 
formal laying out of the land. In 1857 such an announcement was made, 
and on April 1, 1858, thirty designs were submitted. That of Messrs. Olm- 
sted & Vaux was chosen, and they were awarded the first premium of 
$2,000. In 1857 Mr. Olmsted had been appointed superintendent to the 
board; George E. Waring, agricultural engineer; Samuel I. Gustin, nursery- 
man, and several other landscape offices had been created and filled. 

In 1858 Mr. Olmsted was promoted to architect in chief at a salary of 
$2,500 a year, and the other offices abolished or subordinated to his. 

The work of putting the successful design into execution was begun by 
Mr. Olmsted, Calvert Vaux and J. W. Mould in June, 1858. The original 
plan has been pretty closely adhered to, during the forty-odd years of the 
park's existence, although there have been times when strong efforts were 
made to alter it, and even to remodel some of the previous work. In 1871, 
when the Central Park commissioners were legislated out of office, and a 
board of public parks for the whole city instituted, such an attempt was 
made, one of its features being an extensive thinning of the trees. 

In the National Quarterly Review for March of that year Edward J. 
Sears, LL.D., made some interesting, because extremely personal, com- 
ments on the lethargy of the press in connection with the "vandalism" of 
the new park administration: 

"Has the Times become indifferent to what was so dear to poor Mr. 
Raymond? Has Mr, Greeley no protest to make even as an agriculturist? 
Must the World remain dumb because he [Mr. Peter B. Sweeney, who was 
then president of the park board] is a very smart fellow at election time, 
and carries the Irish vote in his pocket? No one has less excuse than the 
Express, for few visit the park more than Mr. Brooks and his handsome 
cream-colored ponies. He and Mr. Hastings would be much better occupied 
in exclaiming, 'Ringman, spare that tree,' than in going to law with each 
other. As to the Post, we fear it is too busily occupied eulogizing all books 
and pamphlets bearing the imprint of wealthy publishers." 

Until 1871 the history of the park was an uneventful one. Most of the 
commissioners had served on the board since its first year, and except for 
family squabbles over the details of management and construction, the 
improvements were carried on without interruption practically in the entire 
charge of Mr. Olmsted. The difficulties which began to interfere with the 
efficiency of the department after its political organization in 1871 are indi- 
cated by the following extract from a pamphlet by Mr. Olmsted, who was 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 225 

subsequently made a commissioner and president of the board shortly prior 
to his dismissal; 

"As superintendent of the park," he says, "I once received in six days 
more than 7,000 letters of advice as to appointments, nearly all from men 
in office." Delegations from various political organizations came to find, 
out "what share of his patronage they could expect," and in order to make 
him as little trouble as possible in its parceling out "they took the liberty 
to suggest that there could be no more convenient way than that you should 
send us our due quota of tickets, if you please, sir, in this form, leaving us 
to fill in the name." Here a pack of printed tickets was produced, which 
proved to be blank appointments, bearing the signature of Mr. Tweed. 
"That," continued the spokesman of the delegation, "was the way we ar- 
ranged it last year, and we don't think there can be anything better." 

There seems to have been some misconception during the early years of 
the park as to its real purpose, and considerable jealousy of its regulations. 
In April, 1864, for instance, one of the regiments of the first division of 
the National Guard, despite the vehement opposition of the park keepers, 
marched through one of the gates and proceeded to drill upon the green. 
Another regiment subsequently attempted to do the same thing. 

An interesting item in the report for 1863 is the announcement that 
fourteen European sparrows, "moineau of France," were let loose in the 
park in the spring .of that year. This original fourteen, apparently the 
pilgrim fathers of the present local settlement, must now be represented by 
several million. 

The paving of Fifth avenue up to the park was completed in 1863. 
Previous to this, especially in wet weather, the approaches had been ex- 
tremely bad, and the completion of the Fifth avenue paving led to an im- 
mediate increase in the use of the park for driving. In its early days guards 
were stationed at each of the park gates, and a part of their duty was ta 
count the number of persons passing in. In 1861 the result of the count 
was 1,863,263 pedestrians, 73,548 equestrians, and 467,849 carriages, the 
total number of visitors being estimated at 2,404,659. 

"For the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the existing vegetation," 
says the first annual report (1857-58), "a botanical survey of the park has 
been made. First to learn how far it can be made available in the projected 
improvements and to ascertain what plants will prove most flourishing if 
transplanted to this ground, and second to discover what alterations the 
soil will require in order to admit of an increased variety." 

This report details about seventy species of trees, shrubs, and vines. 
Among the trees were included maples, beech, dogwood, chestnut, catalpa,. 
red birch, persimmon, ash, locust, black walnut, red cedar, sweet gum, 
sycamore, poplar, American aspen, oak, and elm. All told there were about 
150,000 trees and shrubs. 

Regarding the present vegetation there seems to be no available data, 
no continuous record of the planting having been kept nor any detailed 
botanical study of it made during recent years. 

In 1859 Prof. Charles A. Joy, of Columbia College, made analyses of 

soil from various portions of the park. These are given in the following 

■"ble, an while nowadays the agricultural chemist depends more on actual 



226 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

tests of what a given soil will grow than upon chemical laboratory analysis, 
Prof. Joy's figures will give some idea of the condition of the ground when 
first taken in hand by the park commissioners. The five samples were taken 
from the following locations: 

No. 1. At Seventieth street, near Fifth avenue. 

No. 2. Between Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth streets, at Seventh 
avenue. 

No. 3. Between Eighty-third and Eighty-fourth streets and Fifth 
and Sixth avenues. 

No. 4. Between 102d and 103d streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues. 

No. 5. At 104th street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues. 

12 3 4 5 

Sand and mica 71.63 81.36 82.67 75.58 79.44 

Water and organic matter 2.89 2.93 3.44 3.05 3.51 

Soluble silica 4.58 3.51 1.79 5.86 3.56 

Peroxide of iron 10.11 6.13 2.48 11. 10. 

Alumina 6.4 3.80 5.42 3.25 1.25 

Phosphoric acid 2.5 0.50 1.94 trace 0.08 

Potash and traces of soda 0.1 0.87 0.45 0.35 1.25 

Magnesia 0.08 trace 1.50 .50 0.07 

Lime 1.25 0.15 trace 0.10 0.31 

Sulphuric acid 0.10 0.50 trace trace 0.31 

Loss 0.27 0.25 0.31 0.31 0.28 

The soil question is evidently an old one in the park. This one would 
naturally expect when the x-ocky, barren waste on which it was built is 
remembered. 




CHAPTER XLV. 



Rump Board of Aldermen — Passenger Transportation — Introduction of 

Croton Water — First Local Stage Lines — First "L" Road — 

Advent of the Flat House — Beginning of Central Park. 

"While "Cradle Days of New York" was being compiled requests 
came to the writer from three old citizens for information regarding 
the progress of New York between 1835 and 1875 — the period, they say, 
"when she began to sit up and take notice" of the progress of her sister 
cities, and when she doffed her swaddling clothes. One of the old citizens 
agreed to give his knowledge of occurrences, and, with the readers' permis- 
sion, we will digress once more to make room for an interview with him. 
He was the President of the Cromwellian Board of Aldermen, 
William E. Demarest, who died a short time ago. This board 
got its name because it suggested to come misguided news- 
paper man Cromwell's Rump Parliament. The Cromwellian board had its 
origin in the legislation passed in 1873 establishing minority representa- 
tion in the Board of Aldermen. Then, as now. New York was Democratic, 
and a law was enacted electing three aldermen from each Senate district, 
for which no voter could vote for more than two. As the State Constitu- 
tion gives every citizen the right to vote for all officers elected in his dis- 
trict, Mr. Demarest headed a movement which elected an aldermanic ticket 
under the law existing prior to 1873. These aldermen organized regularly, 
and reported to the Mayor that the board was ready for business on the 
date specified in the law, with the result so well known. 

"Speaking of New York," said Mr. Damerest, "it wasn't so 
much of a place when I came here to live, in 1849. It was a 
two days" drive from Elmira to Binghamton; there we took 
the New York and Erie Railroad to Piedmont, and from there 
the steamer Thomas Powell. This boat was named after its owner, and 
shortly afterward he built the Mary Powell — named after his daughter — 
which has been a feature of the landscape ever since. The only alternative 
route was by line boat to Albany, and from there by steamer. Horace 
Greeley and I had the same opinion of these 'line boats,' whose 'cent-and-a- 
half-a-mile, mile-and-a-half-an-hour,' I haven't forgotten yet. You slept 
in the cabin, and in the morning you had to leave the wooden slab that 
answered for a bed, and go on deck, in all kinds of weather, while the 
cabin was being fixed for breakfast. Walking was more to my fancy. 

"It was the very matter of passenger transportation, together 
with the introduction of Croton water, the establishment of sewers, 
and the invention of the flathouse, that made New York a metropolis. You 
wouldn't believe it, but there was a considerable opposition to all of these 
at the start. 

227 



228 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

"The first local stage line was started by Kipp & Brown in 1838. It 
ran from the South Ferry to Charles street; it was afterward extended to 
Twenty-sixth street, and finally ran to Thirty-fourth street. Then followed 
the Dry Dock line, and afterward Johnson & Shepard ran a line from where 
the Grand Opera House now stands down Eighth avenue to Bleecker street, 
to Broadway, and by Whitehall street to South Ferry. 

"The Third avenue line, the Phoenix line, the Yellow Bird line and 
half a dozen others came in quick succession, all within about three years 
after Kipp & Brown's line. In these stage coach days we had no near side 
laws. The stage would pull up to either side, or stop at any house on the 
block; and, so far as climbing up the steps being unpopular, why, just recall 
that the women wore hoopskirts in those days. 

"The first horsecar line was the Eighth avenue line. This paralleled 
the stage line, and Kipp & Brown were reputed to have spent $75,000 to 
prevent the legislature granting its charter. The merchants along the line, 
too, opposed it, particularly R. L. Stewart, who was the first great sugar 
merchant, because it was claimed that it would interfere with traffic. The 
road was finally completed in 1851, and the Sixth avenue and Third avenue 
lines followed within a short time. The odd thing was that Kipp & -Brown 
refused to build the horsecar lines themselves, but after Oliver Charlick and 
George Law put the Eighth avenue line through successfully, most of the 
remaining stage line proprietors secured charters, and, after the three lines 
mentioned above, quickly constructed car tracks. 

"But the opposition to the horsecar wasn't a circumstance to the fight 
made on the 'L' road. Oliver Charlick and George Law opposed the Ninth 
avenue 'L' even more bitterly than the stage line people fought them; but 
this line, from Battery Place to Ninth avenue and Twenty-first street was 
finally built, and it began running in 1869. It was operated by cable 
until 1870, but the cables wouldn't work successfully, and in that year 
'dummies' were introduced. It took a hard winter and the epizootic to make 
this mode of travel popular. In 1874 I think it was, this combination struck 
town; the stage and horsecar lines were paralyzed by the epizootic and the 
deep snow made walking bad, so those business men who came to town every 
morning by the Hudson River line were forced to take the 'L,' and by the 
time normal conditions were resumed the superiority of this mode of travel 
was recognized. The Sixth avenue 'L,' or Gilbert road, was the second line 
built — in 1871, I think. This style of 'L' structure is the one now in general 
use. The Third avenue line was the third to be built, and then followed 
the Second avenue 'L.' They were all running in '76. 

"The first railroad out of New York was the New York and Harlem, 
built about 1836. It ran from White, Elm and Centre streets to Dover 
Plains. It depended on the milk traffic. The New York and Erie did not 
run trains from Jersey City until about 1854, depending upon steamboat 
connection on the Hudson River at Piermont until then. The Hudson River 
road was started in 1849. Oliver H. Lee was the first president, and John N. 
Wells dug the first shovelful of earth. Its first New York terminal was 
Thirtieth street and Tenth avenue; its tracks were extended down Tenth 
avenue, through West street to Canal and down Hudson to Laight street, at 
St. John's Park, which the road bought from Trinity Corporation. Com- 



CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 229 

modore Vanderbilt finally bought all these except the Erie along about '63 
or '64, and consolidated them into the New York Central. The New Haven 
road was opened shortly after the Harlem — certainly before 1860." 

"As for Croton water, it dates only from 1842. An agitation for pure 
water began in 1831, and when the vote was taken as to introducing it, in 
1832, two wards — the poorest and most densely populated, and where it 
was most needed, of course — gave a majority against it. This was before I 
came from Elmira, but I remember that George Low built the aqueduct at 
High Bridge, and the celebration of the introduction of the water was in 
1844. 

"The first 'flathouse,' or 'model house,' as it was called then, was built 
in 1849. The firm of James Reeve & Co., of which my father was the 'Co.,' 
furnished the lumber for it. Where would we put all the people now, if we 
hadn't the flats? 

"It might interest you to know that the first New York policeman to 
wear a uniform was Swayne Lindsay. He was a fine looking man, fully 
6 feet 2 inches tall, and regulated traffic at Broadway and Fulton street, 
which in my day was almost as crowded and noisy as now. The police were 
mainly Irish, and considered it servile to wear a uniform. Besides, if neces- 
sary, the star badge could be hidden easily, and thus save its wearer any 
possible inconvenience. Lindsay was the first policeman to be pensioned, 
too, I believe. He was run over, and, one leg becoming shorter than the 
other, a bill pensioning him passed the legislature. 

"Speaking of policemen, I recall the Dead Rabbit riot, between sym- 
pathizers of the old municipal police and the metropolitan, or State, force. 
The municipal force had become so corrupt that a law was passed giving 
the Governor control of the police of the metropolitan district. One of the 
local police commissioners. Draper, I believe, was his name, carried a case 
to the Court of Appeals, which decided that the legislature had not the 
constitutional right to take the power to appoint policemen away from the 
local authorities. 

"The first street in New York to be paved with anything but cobble- 
stones was Broadway, which was paved with 10-inch granite blocks. This 
was called the Russ pavement, after its inventor. On account of the large 
smooth surface of the blocks this proved too slippery, and channels were 
afterward cut crosswise in each block. 

"It was not until after 1857 that we had parks that could be called 
such. The only two breathing places for us were the Battery and City 
Hall Park. The agitation for parks began in 1851, and two years later the 
legislature authorized the city to take the land between Fifty-ninth and 
One Hundred and Sixth streets and Fifth and Eighth avenues for a public 
park. The boundary was extended later to One Hundred and Tenth street. 
What a wilderness it was then, and how wearily I tramped to it one Sun- 
day morning, to see nothing but swampland, stagnant pools and rocky 
ravines, with unsightly hovels dotting it! Along about April, 1857, the 
legislature by act named the proposed breathing place Central Park, and a 
board of eleven commissioners was created to lay it out. Plans were ad- 
vertised for, and out of thirty-three submitted two only were chosen, those 
of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. I remember the day work 



230 CRADLE DAYS OF NEW YORK. 

began on it, and saw the plans in Olmsted's hands. They showed roads and 
paths winding in and out amid lakes, forests and meadows. I look on the 
park to-day with wonder v/hen I compare it with its former condition. 
Riverside was acquired in 1871, and Morningside, I think, about 1873. 

"I remember the great mass meeting held in Union Square in April, 
1861, when Mayor Fernando Word in an eloquent speech declared that 'the 
Union must and shall be preserved,' though in January of that year he 
sent a message to the Common Council proposing the secession of the city 
of New York from the rest of the State. 

"An improvement which I originated is the putting of the street 
names on the gas lamps. When I came here the names were on the corner 
houses, and could not be seen at night. Being a stranger, this confused me, 
and a letter in the papers and an interview with Mayor Kingsland had the 
desired result. I also introduced the game of euchre in Nev/ York. It was 
popular in the western part of the State, but no one here knew it when I 
came here to live. I am not so sure that this is an improvement, however. 
But, then, neither am I sure that the city of to-day is an improvement on 
Old New York. You have more people, but in the old days we were neigh- 
bors — at least if we had the same politics and religion. We were conserva- 
tive then. Why, before the war no one with any claims to respectability 
dared wear a mustache! Do you know that General Grant was the first 
President to wear his upper lip covered? I remember going through the 
Navy Yard with a foreign visitor while the man-of-war Niagara was build- 
ing; this man wore a mustache, and every workman on the Niagara knocked 
off to see the hirsute adornment. And what a storm the new style trousers 
aroused. You may remember the old ones, with the big flap in front. Well, 
even the ministers preached against the innovation." 




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A Political Censor lor Constitutional Government 

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